Weight Plans and Bee Adventures

I've always had a pretty positive self image of myself, in fact (for the most part) I still do. This may be because I have never been overweight and the way that I was raised. However, I have definitely packed on some pounds in the last four years. Most people would probably disagree with me and say that I look fine etc etc etc and really, I do look fine. I am probably at my ideal weight for my height, age, and whatever else they measure/use as a statistic for that. The thing is... I am out of shape! I am SO out of shape. I know that I don't need to lose any weight, but I want to get into better shape. But I'm not kidding anyone if I say that I wouldn't like to lose some weight. Fit into my clothes better and that doesn't mean going out and getting bigger sizes. Or gain muscle mass so my weight stays the same, but the body shrinks, lol!

I want to be more active on a personal level and I want to be more active as a family. Our new house comes equip with a biking/walking trail pretty much right next to it and I want to take full advantage of it as much as we can this summer! I want nightly walks or bike rides as a family. I understand that Jay works hard all day, but he needs to be more active/healthier as well. If I have packed on just a few pounds, he has packed on just that much more and with him it is evident. I don't want to sit here and say that he has gotten fat because he hasn't. As a family (or more so adults) we have gotten less healthy in our eating habits and physical activity. Definitely Ayden keeps us on our toes a lot, but I'll admit it... I am lazy!

Jay was in sports all year round in high school and that kept him in tip top shape. And personally while he was wrestling, he was probably TOO skinny for his body shape. But that is what wrestling is all about... making weight, making weight to the extremes! So after wrestling ended (well sports all together with graduation) and he was able to eat what he wanted when he wanted he did (and still does). He got up to what I would probably consider his ideal weight, but then kept up those eating habits. Without those sports, he doesn't exercise. I don't want to seem him go on some extreme diet to lose weight or exercise 24/7... I just want us to be active together as a family and for FREE, lol! We've talked about getting a membership to the Y, but that costs money and why do that if we can do stuff for free and together? I want us both to get into better shape and just feel healthier about ourselves. And what better time to start that than at the beginning of a month.

Ha, like we need anything else besides moving to keep us busy, right?

So, I have decided that I am going to start myself on Monday the 1st and suggest to Jay that we start being active as a family. I won't suggest anything more than that because I don't want him to feel like I am pressuring him about his weight or anything. I love him as he is (okay maybe it doesn't seem like that with all that I am talking about here), but I hope you get the point about what I mean. And if not, then stop reading...

I have decided to try the Special K two week challenge. I've also decided to hop back on my elliptical (which has been collecting dust for the past couple of months in our bedroom) with the new space that we will have for it at the new house and even pop in a workout DVD. I am going to weigh myself at the beginning of the two weeks and then again at the end. However, the number isn't what matters to me, its how the clothes fit that will determine my progress. With no school work to keep me busy, I have plenty of time at night to work out and figured I could get up a little earlier in the morning and do it as well. What is getting up at 7 or 7:30 during the week... totally not bad, right? Anything that doesn't start with a 6 is okay with me, lol!

So, I’m going to try my luck with The FIRM DVD and some small free weights as well as dusting off my elliptical and trying out the Special K challenge. Motivation… I need you more than ever! Actually, I am really motivated right now, just might not be so much after the first day, ha! Stay positive Ashley… stay positive!

I've just been feeling pretty icky about the personal decisions that I have been making during the past two weeks that I have been out of school. I feel like I am already wasting the summer away and don't want to do that. Especially since it will be my last summer 'off' because we have class and clinic during the summer for grad school. And I am definitely a planner... I love to plan things, its just the follow through that I sometimes have issues with (well at least when it comes to getting off my lazy bum). Seriously though, I'd rather read the day away than do pretty much anything active, lol. That is just me though.

I am also hoping to get some scrapbooking done this summer for Ayden's scrapbook. I have been adding to it over the years, but really haven't done anything since his last birthday and all of those pages were all digital. I want to add a bunch from the last year to his book and have them be actual pages. That is my other main goal for the summer. Speaking of scrapbook pages, does anyone know of a good place to get 12x12 prints? I think you can get them from Costco, however we do not have one close to us. I am assuming you might be able to order them online, but they are about $3 a page. Does anyone know of anything cheaper? I have 20+ pages I would like printed.

Ayden and I went to the library this afternoon after his 4K class and got some good books for bedtime reading. We had quite the adventure on our ride home… a ride that should have taken about 10 minutes and ended up taking probably at least 20.

With the nice weather we had this afternoon, I of course was driving around with my windows down. First, keeps the car cooler and secondly, my air conditioning doesn’t work so it was sort of a must, haha. Well, as my luck would have it, about half way home a bee flew into the window. If I haven’t said it before, I’ll say it now… I am seriously afraid of bees/wasps/anything with a stinger. I don’t know why, just am! Ugh, so a bee is flying around in my car! I pull into the nearest parking lot and vacate the car (Ayden too) and manage to kill said bee with my long handled ice scraper. Yeah! Dead bee! Ready to finish our trip home. It was at that point that Ayden suggested we roll up our windows. I told him that we could leave them down because bees don’t usually fly into people’s cars and it wouldn’t happen again. I mean have you ever had a bee fly into your car while you were driving?

So, not even a minute later we are driving along when ANOTHER bee ends up in the car!!! And this one was no ordinary bee… it was one of those HUGE HAIRY BUMBLEBEES!!! The first bee Ayden didn’t really notice and was fine, this one he did and he was FREAKING out! And of course the bee was in the back by him. I could see the terror in his eyes and felt so bad for him. I was praying he would just stay seated and not unbuckle himself and try climbing into the front seat while I was driving. At this point I was on a main road and took the nearest turn I could find, only to get stuck behind another car that was trying to turn. Time was going in slow motion as my little guy was having an anxiety attack! Okay, so I manage to get on a side road and pull over. Both Ayden and I are out of the car in seconds. Did I mention this sucker was monstrous!

Like seriously bigger than this super ugly looking thing! Remember, I’m a bee hater! Gives me the shivers just thinking about it!

 

We are out of the car and I start the hunt to kill the sucker! After about five minutes of poking around in my car with my long handled ice scraper at every spot I could think of that the bee might be, I concluded that either it was hiding very well or it had escaped the wrath of Ashley.

Ayden and I tentatively re-entered the car and closed the windows for the rest of the ride home. We made it home in a sweltering car bee free, however I think I have officially scared Ayden off of EVER riding with open windows again. Ugh, and my car gets super hot in the summer! I’ll have to work on that one.

But seriously… what are the chances that we get bee attacked twice in one day… in one drive at that! We survived! Ayden was not too happy when I told him that we would probably see a lot more bees during the summer because they liked warm weather.

On a brighter note, or maybe just less scary (at least to me) we get the keys to our new place tomorrow! We can start moving our stuff in on Sunday afternoon because the carpets are being cleaned Saturday afternoon. Exciting exciting… pray for good weather!

CIAO! LOVE ME!