10 days till we leave for our mission trip to Guatemala. I’m getting both excited and apprehensive. Praying that we have a safe and productive trip.

Went to a Sexual Assault Family Violence conference in Irving with Sarah Murphy last week and had a good time. Tarah was there, also. Tuesday was Sarah’s birthday and we celebrated big time. I haven’t been that drunk in many years, lol. I had a blast. Some guy in the bar thought I was the hottest thing ever and bought all of my drinks! He wanted to take me to Italy, lol. We stayed at the Omni Mandalay Hotel and it was exquisite. It was on a lake and was similar to the river walk in San Antonio without all the businesses. It was really nice to get away for a few days. The conference was really good, too.

I’ve been doing You Time at the YMCA and going to aqua aerobics classes. I’m really enjoying the challenge of the workouts again. I haven’t been able to lose any more weight which is discouraging, but I’ll keep right on working out. My body is getting stronger and stronger and that’s a great feeling.

I’m a week late, but anyway, I made it through my first month of Challenge. It was, to say the least, challenging at times. I thoroughly enjoyed it though. It’s such a good feeling to push myself further and further and realize that I am capable of accomplishing things I would never have imagined being able to do. When I began Ripple Effect I couldn’t do 1 military style push-up. At the beginning of Challenge I was able to do 24. At the end of the month I was able to do 39! That’s a little deceiving because I wasn’t able to go down as far as I should, but I still wasn’t doing them on my knees. We do quite a bit of running in Challenge, which I’m beginning to love again. Hopefully I can keep it going without injury, that’s my biggest fear.
This week was the first week of my second month of Challenge. We did our parameters on Tuesday. I was able to do, I think, 28 full military push-ups, and I ran my mile in under 10 minutes. I was third out of 9 people, beat only by the 2 guys and I’m by many years older than all of them, lol. That’s a great feeling, one I can’t even describe.
Today our workout was extremely difficult and I loved it. My body is feeling it now. I think I’ll go soak in some epsom salts!
Hope everyone has a wonderful day! Do something kind for someone 🙂

This morning was the last morning of week three for The Ripple Challenge. We had a good workout. It was challenging, to say the least, but I loved it. Yesterday it was even more challenging for me. For some reason me and full sit-ups don’t get along, and we had to do a LOT of power sit-ups. I don’t know if my body is made strange or my form is off when I’m doing them, but it leaves the top of my butt completely chafed and raw. Now I can’t get comfortable sitting, and barely laying down. The things I’m willing to put up with to stay fit! Went to Academy and got some body glide that is supposed to stop chafing and will give that a try. Next week is the last week for June Challenge and we will be testing our parameters again. Hoping to see some improvement from the beginning of the month.

Today began at 4am with feelings of anticipation. I really felt like rolling over and going back to sleep, but got up any way. As I was washing my face and getting dressed I couldn’t help but wonder if I should’ve just signed up for Ripple Bravo instead of Challenge. Challenge is so intimidating. I worry that I won’t be able to keep up or be as fast as everyone else. I make it to the gym and await our assignment. Others express the same feelings I was having this morning so I’m not feeling so bad. We are told we are going outside. This morning was cold, especially for May. We begin with a warmup and are told we will be taking it a little easy today because tomorrow we will be testing our parameters. We are going to do the exercises that will be measured tomorrow. We begin with a run through the neighborhood. I manage to keep up and still be able to breathe and feel good. Then we go into a series of 1 minute exercise, 30 second exercise and 30 second rest then the next exercise. We did jumping jacks, jogging; sit-ups, 6 inch hold; push-ups, planks; and leg raises, 6 inch hold; and then repeat everything. (I think that was all, but not positive) Then we went for a short jog in the parking lot and cooled down. I survived! I loved the workout and my doubts about Challenge dissolved. I think I will be able to do it!

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted anything. Had a great girls weekend on the 20th with my sisters and step-mom to celebrate my 50th birthday. We visited, ate too much, played, shopped and went to church together to finish the weekend off. Lots of laughing and sharing. It was a perfect celebration. They surprised me with a money tree to help me with my mission trip to Guatemala in August. They are such a blessing in my life.

Ryan closed on his house and got moved in. I’m so proud of him. The house is great and perfect for him. So excited for him. Much to my surprise he planted some tomatoes and a sago palm tree. Guess he was just kidding when he said he was gonna pull up all the rose bushes because they’d just be in the way for mowing, lol. Looking forward to his housewarming party next Friday night.

The house sure is quiet without Puffy. Miss him like crazy 🙁

I signed up for Ripple Challenge for May. It starts Monday and I’m nervous. Sure hope I can keep up. I’ve been going to classes at the gym all week during the break so I won’t be so sore when we get started back up. This morning I’ll be going to the Cardio Strength Interval class. Been up all night at work after not sleeping much yesterday, so it’s gonna be a struggle making it thru class, but don’t wanna miss it.

It’s hard to believe that I’m 50 years old. A half century, wow! Seems like just yesterday I was dreading turning 30. In my head I’m still that 30 year old. I don’t really feel any different. Sure my body feels the years, like my knees hurting from squats and running, but overall I can’t complain. I’m able to workout right along side many young people and sometimes able to do more than them. That’s an awesome feeling. I’m slower at doing some things, but I give it my all. I feel so much more comfortable with myself than I did when I was 30. I’m also a lot healthier than I was back then. Taking care of myself is a big part of my life now. Hopefully that will give me many more years of life to enjoy!

Traci and I went to Houston and saw Pink at the Toyota Center. What a show! The singing was great and her acrobats were amazing. Our seats were in the nosebleed section, but at least they were in the center. Pink is in awesome shape and danced around in high heels most of the night. She was singing all the whole she was doing all the acrobatics and flying around the arena. Simply amazing!

We’re staying at the Inn at the Ballpark on the 12th floor. The hotel is super nice.

We started our day at the Galleria doing some shopping and lots and lots of walking. We had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and it was delicious. We had enough leftover to have it again for dinner.

Our feet are killing us, but it has been a super day!

Just when things are going so well, a setback. Saturday morning it was freezing outside and our Ripple Effect workout was outside. It doesn’t take long to warm up once we start working out though. We were doing our exercises and on the third set we did jump squats. I wasn’t jumping because my knees are weak, so I was just pulsing the squats. We were sprinting to a cone and back between exercises and then we went into jumping jacks, if I remember correctly. On one of the jumps I heard a loud pop and a roll in my right thigh. It hurt like hell. First I thought it was going to be alright after stretching it out good, but boy was I wrong! I had to miss a good it of the rest of our workout with some of the instructors stretching it out and assessing it. They said it may have a small tear, but it probably just knotted up due to the cold and popped when I landed on it. I was able to walk on it and did finish the rest of the workout doing the best I could. I iced it when I got home and put bio freeze on it before I went to bed. When I got up that afternoon to go to work it was very sore, but not unbearable. Throughout the night at work I iced it and kept it elevated. I got a roller on my way to work and used that on my lunch hour. It felt okay rolling it. Sunday night it was hurting bad and I continued the ice therapy and elevation. I rolled it on he roller again on my lunch hour. I eventually put heat on it. Tonight it feels better, but still hurts. I don’t think I’ll be able to do the ripple workout tomorrow and it is really getting me down. I’m hoping it is better quickly. I’m really having bad withdrawals from Ripple Effect and I’ve only missed one workout, which I would’ve missed any way because of work, lol. I would quit, but I don’t know how! Can’t wait for the pain to go away and get back to Ripple! In the meantime I will continue the rest of my healthy lifestyle and do some other types of exercise that don’t effect my hamstring. I’m done ranting now.

What a wonderful year this has been so far. I have been having such an awesome time with the Ripple Effect. It is such hard work, but so rewarding at the same time. I’m doing things I never would’ve thought myself capable of. I can feel my body getting stronger every day and my clothes are starting to get very loose. We had a big Ripple Effect free Saturday workout on the 9th that was off the chain. They made lots of announcements about upcoming exciting things. They also announced the winners of the weight loss challenge for last month. Much to my surprise, I won 2nd place! I only lost 5 pounds, but I lost a total of 8 inches and over 7% body fat! The 1st place winner lost an amazing 20 pounds! We both did the Advocare 24 day challenge along with the weight loss challenge which gave us optimum results. I’m hoping that I can reach my weight loss goal by this summer. I will continue to participate in the Ripple Effect even after accomplishing that goal. I also signed up to go on the Ripple Effect mission trip to Guatemala in July. I am looking very forward to this experience.