Life Update

Long time, no update.  No update.  No pictures.  No nothing.  It's because we've been up to everything, that there is nothing here!  What, you may ask, is everything?  Well, let me fill you in.  We have now entered into the busiest time of the year.  This last six weeks of the school year is THE busiest, most action packed six weeks of the whole school year.  There are more tests, field trips, performances, fun days and activities scheduled than at any other time in the life of a school aged child.  Sigh.  This momma is tired and we still have a long way to go to crash and relax time.  Where to start?  How about with ME for once?  What's up with me lately?  Well...I wear glasses now.  For starters.  I totally gave up on the contacts.  I got quite good at them, once I found a  brand that would actually come back out of my eyeball once it was placed there.  But as good as I am at taking them in and out, I just can't stand them.  I can only wear them a short few hours before I just can't take it anymore.  They itch and bother and bug me to no end.  I find myself constantly swiping at my eyes and blinking like a weirdo and feeling like I just need to close my eyes for a bit because they feel so tired and irritated with the contacts in.  After many, many, MANY attempts I finally just said screw it.  Bring on the specs.  I just don't care.  I went to a crazy website that one of Chris's coworkers told him about and ordered a pair of glasses, with my prescription, online.  They were CHEAP.  And I waited with baited breath until they arrived.  I was nervous.  I paid a whopping $40 for these specs and I was preparing for the worst case of ugly ever recorded in the great state of Texas.  Actually, when I ordered the glasses, I was still PLANNING to conquer the whole contacts thing and figured that since I would probably only need the glasses right as I went to bed at night, what difference would it make if they were totally ugly.  Noone would need see them, right?  And I wanted all of my insurance money to go toward my contacts so I didn't want to spend it on glasses at the optomestrist.  Yes, cheap was the answer.  Ugly was acceptable.  I took the risk and ordered them up.  They arrived about 3 weeks later and were surprisingly lovely!  Like TOTALLY surprisingly lovely.  Like I can SO wear them in public.  Like several people have seen them and really liked them kind of lovely.  Best $40 I have spent in a long time.  The glasses were such a success that I decided to splurge and go crazy and order myself some sunglasses.  I ordered the closest thing I could find to today's sunglasses style and closest to what I already had sitting in my sunglasses case....and again...AMAZING.  The pricetag on my prescription sun specs?  A whole $11!  Woo HOo!!!!!  Man, was I excited.  I've since ordered a backup pair of sunglasses exactly identical to what I already bought and also another pair of glasses with a little different frame.  I love that they are so darned inexpensive.  And I love that my eyeballs do not itch like crazy when I wear them.  I came.  I tried the contacts.  I said "No thank you".  And that is the end of that story.  On another front...still about me (maybe this post will be ALL about me?) I shook up my workout this week.  I recently ordered the Zumba Exhilaration DVD set.  I thought it would be fun to get in touch with my Latin roots.  Of course...I've since remembered that I don't actually HAVE any latin roots.  This poses more of a problem than I anticipated.  Latin roots would be MOST helpful during this workout.  My hips just don't MOVE the way those girl's on there do.  They don't swivel and sway like that!  And I'm pretty sure they never will!  There's lots of tango and cha cha and salsa dancing involved.  To this point in my life, the only salsa I've participated in has involved tortilla chips and margaritas!  I'm pretty sure those skinny girls on the video rarely, or never indulge in salsa with tortilla chips.  Dang it!  By the third day of doing the new Zumba workout, I could barely move.  My entire core hurt SO badly.  My hips, my abs, my lower back. Aye carumba!  But it is fun, fun, fun and I am SO glad to have it.  Pain and all. Several folks have volunteered to come and dance the Zumba workout with me when I do it.  I can tell you right now...that is NEVER gonna happen!  There are many wonderful things that friends should share in life.  But THIS is not one of them.  Oh no!  I'm going to have to do my gyrating and shaking of the booty all alone.  I don't know that I could show my face in public if others were to witness the Tonya Roberts Zumba interpretation.  I'm doing the same dance as the video...and yet...sadly...I am no where even close all at the same time.   In addition to my Zumba, I shook my workout up even further.  Yesterday morning I was reading an article that said that I should do my resistance and weights training FIRST, and THEN do my cardio second.  This is completely opposite of what I do now.  I generally go and do about 30 to 45 minutes of cardio...either running or using the elliptical or arc trainer, THEN I head over to the weights and make my rounds there.  I decided to give the opposite a try because it SUPPOSEDLY is much more effective for burning fat, per the article.  I did a reasonable weights workout...a couple of biceps exercises, a couple of triceps exercises, a couple of leg exercises, some chest, shoulders and back.  Took me right at 30 minutes.  Nothing new.  Nothing fancy.  Just simple squats and lunges stuff with light weights...two sets of 12 for each exercise.  THEN I moved on to the cardio.  I decided to run a 5K.  That's 3.2 miles.  A very easy distance for me.  So I jumped on the treadmill, cranked up my music, and I was off!  The first 5 minutes were TOUGH!  But after that it was all SO, so easy!  I ran and was just grooving along.  Then I was recalling a conversation with my friend Wendy and she mentioned something about how long it took her to run her 5K distance.  So then THAT got me to wondering how fast I could run MY 5K distance.  Of course...this thought train did not start until I was already 2 miles in...doing a nice relaxing pace.  But I decided to bump up my speed and just see what I could do with it in that last 1.2 remaining miles.  I clocked my time for the 5K at 28:37.  Not bad, considering I only hurried for a third of it.  I was proud of myself, cooled down and jumped off the treadmill and hit the showers.  I then went to meet a friend for lunch.  At which point I realized that I was starting to be in pain.  And by that, I mean I wanted to burst into tears at the thought of bending my knees and engaging my quads to sit.  But sit I did.  I mean, how weird would it have been for me to stand towering over my friend while having lunch, right?.  She would have broken her sweet neck looking up at me all that time.  And so...sit I did...and enjoyed my lunch.  A lovely ceasar salad with an ibuprofen chaser.  The ibuprofen helped.  A bit.  And today has been a new day.  A new day where I am even MORE sore than yesterday.  Where I want to cry at the mere thought of climbing steps or stairs of any kind.  Where I want to have an epidural just so I won't feel my lower extremities anymore for a while.  To say that my quads hurt would have to be THE understatement of the century.  Uggggh!  Moving has not done much to ease the soreness.  Ibuprofen has not done much to ease the soreness.  The glass of wine I just had has not done much to ease the soreness.  I am seriously in pain.  As a matter of fact, I am seriously contemplating just sleeping here at my desk tonight in the study because then I won't have to get up and WALK.  Have I mentioned that I am in pain?  Whimper.  Moan.  Sniff.  Yes.  I know I did it to myself.  Don't I always?  You'd think I would learn.  You'd think I'd be damned skinny by now too...but you see how that has turned out!  Alas...tomorrow is a new day.  When I roll out of bed I am praying to be pain free!  And I mean that I will probably just literally roll right on over and out of the bed so as not to have to bend my sore legs and engage my quads.  Then I can just crawl on into the kitchen where hopefully one of my children will take pity on me and fix me some coffee.  They can just sit it down on the floor in front of me there.  Sigh.  Yes.  Tomorrow is a new day.  Pray for me!  And that's about it for now.  I'm going to wrap up THIS post having filled you in on me and only me this time.  And now...this is me.  Signing off.  But NOT getting up from the desk.  Because that would involve those pesky legs of mine and the muscles contained therein.  Nighty night!  Sleep tight!