Saturday Ramblings...

The girls and I have had a pretty relaxed day today. Emma woke me this morning, much to my disappointment, at 7:30 am. I convinced her to get in bed with me and watch tv, hoping that I would be able to sleep just a little longer. If you know Emma, though, you know that she is not a reticent child. Even at the very moment she awakes, she's got something pressing to say and must say it loudly enough to ensure that everyone else in the county hears her. I managed to ignore some of her chatting long enough to doze in and out of consciousness. Finally around 8:15 she'd had enough of talking to herself and my snoozing was over. She was ready for her chee-wie-ohs.
As I attempted to fall out of bed, my body was begging me not to. It was stiff and rigid. My muscles were sore. Any slight movement caused aches in every muscle I have. As I staggered into the bathroom, wondering what was wrong with me today, I remembered why I would be sore today and probably tomorrow as well. I started going to the gym this week on the mornings that Emma is in preschool. Much to my surprise, I've enjoyed it. And up until today, I've not been stiff or sore from my workouts. (Apparently, I wasn't doing it right!) Well, yesterday morning, Nathan let me borrow his ipod so that I could listen to music while I worked out. I had no idea the amount of motivation that would come out of that little electronic device! I was on that treadmill jammin' to some rock n' roll music that he has programmed on it. I didn't know who was singing or what they were saying half the time but the beat was enough to keep me going at a brisk pace. Then I decided that I felt like jogging a little. So after a half mile warm up I started jogging. At this point, the music really started motivating me. I was like Rocky Balboa training for a victory. Nothing could stop me! I pushed myself to make it to a mile and a half, which meant that I had jogged for an entire mile! I can't tell you the last time I jogged a mile, if ever! I was so proud of myself, and I could just feel the pounds melting off of me like butter on a hot biscuit. I just knew I'd be at least 5 lbs. lighter from that jog. I had only used up about 25 minutes of my planned hour workout time so I headed over to the eliptical machines. I love those things but I'm gonna tell you what, if I so much as lifted one hand off of those handlebars, I would go flying off of that thing. So knowing that balance is not something I was blessed with, I hang on tight and hope that if I do fly off, I won't take down the person next to me. After doing another mile on the eliptical, I decided I'd better get off since I no longer had feeling in my legs, which made the machine that much more perilous. Not wanting my upper body to be jealous of the calisthenics I'd put my lower extremities through, I headed on over to the weight machines. After much lifting, burning-ouch!, pulling, burning-ouch!, pushing, burning-ouch!, and crunching until I felt I had rid myself of at least one of the tires around my midsection, I called it quits and left the gym, head held high and sure that I was so much thinner than I was when I entered those doors.

Those feelings of thinness came crashing down later that afternoon as I was getting dressed to go to a Mom's Night Out event with my MOPS group. Earlier in the day I started feeling a little crampy and I realized that "Mildred" was coming for visit very soon. As the afternoon went on, I kept getting more and more bloated until I looked like I was at least in the seventh month of a pregnancy. (Scary!!) So every outfit I put on didn't fit right and made me look blimpish. ~really ticked me off and put me in a foul mood. Finally after an hour or so of putting on and throwing off clothes, I conceded to wearing what I had originally planned and avoided any mirrors as I prepared to leave.

I don't know about you but during the first day of two of this "time of the month," I'm not right in the head! I'm just off a little bit, well more than usual. I'm scattered and can't seem to process things just right and don't even get me started about the emotions that come with it. So since I was 'not right in the head' last night, I left home headed for my much needed Mom's Night Out an hour too early. Lucky for me (and the friends I was about to meet up with), God was taking care of me by planning for me to leave that early. I realized as I was pulling out of the driveway that I was WAY too early and God told me quite plainly, "GET YOURSELF TO WAL-MART RIGHT NOW AND BUY SOME MIDOL AND A BOTTLE OF WATER AND TAKE THE DRUGS AS SOON AS YOU RE-ENTER YOUR CAR!" So of course, I obeyed. After about an hour, I was feeling more myself again. Although I still felt like a blimp in the clothes I had on but whatever! I ended up having a really good time and laughed so much I barely had any eye make-up left on when I got home.

As I'm writing this I'm still in my pajamas, hair wild and pulled up in a messy ponytail. There's nothin' better than loungin' around in your pj's all day when Mildred is visiting. However I have to get off here and get dressed as it is getting late and Nathan will be home soon. I convinced him that I needed a music player myself, like his ipod, to keep me motivated while I work out. Since I rarely stay motivated to work out for any lenght of time, and he's paid for us a gym membership, I think he's hoping it will do the trick! ;-) We'll see!
Have a great rest of the weekend!!