Most of my weekends are full with working, yes, I’ve gone back to work during the weekend.  However, I don’t know how much longer that’ll be going on with summer coming.  I don’t plan on working during the weekends in the summer because that’s our family time to go out places and I’m not giving that up.

Family Update

Xavier

Xavier is doing good!  Actually, better than good!  He’s off the oxygen during the day and during most of his naps. He still needs it at night-time because he’s in a much deeper sleep, but it’s a start!  We can actually go places (grocery shopping, taking Thaddeus to school, etc.) without needing to bring the travel oxygen and his monitor.  Although I do bring them to the doctors appointments, at least the monitor, so the doctors can check his readings.  He’ll be going in for his 9-month check-up this week, although he’s almost 10-months but because he was in the hospital when he turned 9-months and he’s not need any shots we’re not worried about it.

Thaddeus

Thaddeus is bored with school and it’s keeping him in trouble!  The teachers just can’t seem to figure out how to keep him occupied when he gets done with his classwork before the rest of the class.  They (his teacher) thinks that just because he can go read a book, work on his activity book, or whatever else she allows them to do when they finish their work is going to keep him occupied enough to keep him out of trouble.  Guess she’s not that smart of a teacher to know if you put a child by himself to keep himself occupied he’s just going to do whatever he can to get attention and act out.  I’ve already mentioned to the counselor that maybe he shouldn’t be in the 1st grade since he’s finishing his work to fast and he’s obviously very smart.

Now, I know all parents talk about how their child/children are smart and sometimes this is an exaggeration, but that’s not the case here.  We received Thaddeus’ DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) reading assessment that shows how he was in September and how he was in January. For whatever reason they only have three levels; Benchmark level – on track, Strategic level – below, and Intensive level – well below.  They need to add one for above because if I read these results correctly than Thaddeus is NOT “on track” but above where 1st graders should be.  You be the judge.

Keep in mind that these numbers are just for reading and according to his report card by the end of the year exceptions are lower than what he was at during the last testing and lower than what he was at when they first tested him.

Oh yeah, I finally finished Thaddeus’ room.  The only thing I had left to do was to paint the trim and that is now done!  Almost done with Xavier’s room, just have to put his name on the wall and get him a dresser!

Me & Hubby

I’ve taken some time off school, it was just getting to be too much while Xavier was in the hospital.  I’ve been trying to get back into shape, started a 21 day challenge, but that didn’t go so well!  I’m into day 12 and I have absolutely no motivation!  Maybe we’ll try again next month.  I really thought this would work since I was participating with other bloggers and had to keep track for a challenge.  That didn’t work at all .

Hubby’s doing good, starting up his own business and should be going solo in the coming months.  He’s still got some work to get done, both on the site and for the business before he quits his job.

I think we may do some family pictures here within the next month, if not we’ll definitely be getting some pictures of the kids.

Let me first start by saying I am so out of shape!  This is going to be much harder than I thought.  I haven’t really been able to get too much time for working out, mainly because Xavier doesn’t want to cooperate with me.  Yes, I’m blaming the 9-month old!

I’m trying, it’s just not that easy!  My biggest problem are those pesky spots where I can lose points; skipping breakfast, coffee, and sweets.  Trying to eat 5 meals a day is easy to do, however it’s also hard on me because I feel more hungry than I normally do because my body is wanting that food.

I did get a little exercise yesterday and I’m working on getting more today but it’s kicking my butt!

I will get to gain points for doing things like drinking water (1 point for every cup), eating meals (5 meals per day and 4 points per meal), exercising, sleeping, etc.  But, I also lose points for doing things that I shouldn’t, like drinking coffee (I must have coffee :( ), candy, skipping breakfast (which I do most days or eat it super late), carbs, etc.  I do however, get to get some extra daily bonus points for keeping track of things and for doing things like sweating, doing the weekly challenge, blog, tweet, etc.

My Goals

• My goal for this challenge is to lose 5 pounds and go from a size 12 pants to a size 10.  Baby steps, hoping for more, but definitely have to be achievable!
• My goal for the first week is to exercise for 30 minutes at least 4 days.

So to get this started, I need to take my measurements…which you all are going to get to see.  Be nice, most women wouldn’t post these things for the public to see, especially not the entire world!

Here are my specifics:

Weight: 156.4 pounds

Body Fat Percentage:  34.3%

Chest:  43.5″

Waist:  27.5″

Abdomen:  40″

Hips: 41″

Thigh: 21.5″

Calf:  14.5″

Arm: 10.5″

My before pictures:

Fit Moms For Life: How To Have Endless Energy To Outplay Your Kids

Here are the other bloggers who are participating in this challenge for the month of March.

Be sure to come back and see how I’m doing!

Thaddeus

He’s doing good in school, so far.  He started off that way last year and then turned into the little devil that he is! It’s hard to get him to and from school right now because I have to pack up Xavier with the oxygen and monitor, but we manage.  This year I’ve been letting Thaddeus walk himself to the door he goes in all by himself, mainly because I’m too tired in the morning to pull out the stroller and get Xavier situated, but he’s really enjoying being able to go up to the school on his own.  He says that he’s a big boy now because he gets to walk himself to the school.

Xavier

He’s slowly getting better.  We’ve been having a hard time getting him to eat like he used to, not sure what the problem is.  He came home from the PICU eating 3-5oz each feeding and now he’s only taking 1-2oz with the few exceptions where he’s taken about 3oz.  We can’t figure it out, but he’s still gaining some weight, so the home nurse isn’t concerned.  Guess he’s just being his stubborn self!  I’ve been trying to keep track of his weight myself with our home scale by weighing myself and then the both of us together and subtracting my original weight.  Last Sunday, Xavier was 7.8 pounds when I weighed him that way and when the nurse weighed him a few minutes later he was 7.9 pounds, so it was pretty close.  I weighted him the other day, Tuesday, and he was 8lbs. He’s gaining, but just the minimum he should be.  Either way, I need to get me a baby scale to make this easier.

He’s been smiling for a while now, and not the gassy smiles, real smiles.  He does it most when he knows his being a little stinker (not wanting to take his bottle or fussing) and he’ll just look up at you with this big joker smile!  And the little stinker will NOT let me get a picture of him smiling.  He will smile and smile at you and the moment you get the camera he will stop smiling.

Me

I took the summer off from classes because I knew Xavier was going to be coming and I didn’t want him to show up in the middle of a semester, which he ended up doing!  I start back next week and I’m not really looking forward to it. I mean, I’d like to get it all over with, but at the same time I’m getting tired of school.  Besides, taking classes takes away from my family time, blogging time, and time for me to get my butt back into shape.  Hell, it’s been years since I’ve been in shape and it’s long over due!  Thankfully I have this Journey Gym that I can use and take into any room of the house, now if I could only get a portable exercise bike and treadmill!  Then I’d be all set.  We have a new exercise bike and it’s great, but I can’t just move it from room to room.

Sleep!  OMG what is that? I am so in the need for some sleep right now, Xavier just doesn’t understand the concept of going back to sleep in the middle of the night. And the grunting type noises he makes what is up with that? It is so annoying!  I thought Brandon’s snoring was bad!  There is NO WAY that I will be able to sleep in the same room as both of them when Xavier is off the oxygen!

ABSOLUTELY NO WAY

I’m going to have to move into the extra bedroom!

Brandon

He’s doing good.  He’s been helping out on the weekends by taking the night shift with Xavier and letting me get sleep, which is great because I don’t know if I could go every day of every week without getting at least a few nights of straight sleep!  He’s working, probably more than he has since he’s been at his current job since one of the guys left.

Shawn Ann’s World

The site is doing pretty good!  I’ve been getting some nice review items, as you’ve noticed and we’ve had a lot more giveaways lately too.  I’m gearing up for a change in the look of the site, which I’m excited about.  Yeah, I know, another theme change!  I can’t help it, if Studiopress wouldn’t put out such great child themes, I probably would just stick with one theme forever!

Anyway, hubby purchased this book for me (since he has the one for men) to follow, it’s call The New Rules of Lifting for Women: Lift Like a Man, Look Like a Goddess by Lou Schuler, and although I haven’t made it through the entire book (mainly because I’ve been focusing my reading on the books for reviews) it has been a decent book.  Lots of rules though I’ve been lifting weights every other day now for two weeks with using the treadmill or bike the other days. What a workout, that Alwyn is a sadist!

I’ll be updating more often on my progress, although you can always see my updates of my workouts on Twitter and Facebook since I’m using that iPhone app Lose It! which will automatically post any exercises I put for the day.  Not sure yet that this is the best app for keeping track of your foods and exercises, but it works for me right now.

Stay tuned for more updates

The New Year is upon us and we can start fresh with our goals.  I technically started my goal almost 2 months ago, and unfortunately I haven’t been doing much about it.  So, I’m going to start it over, but not today.  I’m going to wait until I get the stitches out of my hand, so I can really start working out, without worrying about sweat getting all over in my cast/bandages.

The In-Laws just left us today, went back down to Kentucky after being here since Thursday, late afternoon.  It was great seeing them, it’s been a few months, and Thaddeus had a blast!  I’ll post some pictures either later today or tomorrow from their visit.

You may notice a little downtime coming up, hopefully not too much.  I’m moving Shawn Ann’s World to a new host and the move takes a little time.  If you are making comments, either on regular posts or giveaways and notice it doesn’t show up, please repost because it may have been during the backup or move and it got missed.   I will try to make the move as smoothy as I can, but I can’t control any hickups that may arise from the move.

40 minutes on the bike for 6.83 miles and 172.3 calories burned

5:15 minutes on the treadmill for .23 miles, 9.3 fat calories, 29 calories.

I also did some stretching and some free weights for my arms, nothing major just about 10-15 minutes worth.  Better than nothing though, right?

Oh and I also played a few games on the Wii, bowled a couple games, played five games of tennis, and did a little boxing.

All in all, not a bad day of working out

30.23 minutes on the treadmil, 1.42 miles, 57.8 fat cals burned and 185 calories.

30.27 minutes on the exercise bike, 6.421 miles, 148.4 calories.

Today…

Walked around the Detroit Zoo for about 2-1/1 hours or so.

Today I weighed in at 151.5lbs :( This is according to Wii Fit Plus, which I will be using for yoga, exercise, and balance and I will also be using the treadmill and whatever else I can get my hands on to help me exercise and reach my goal.  My ultimate goal is to be about 120 pounds.

I was on the treadmill today for 61:14 and walked/jogged 2.87 miles.  According to the treadmill I lost 116.6 fat calories and 373 regular calories.

Here’s my weight loss tracker

What, oh what, will I do with my day when I won’t have to spend at least 2 hours a day doing classwork and participation?  Oh yeah, LOSE SOME WEIGHT!  That’s my next goal!  Oh and of course blog, I’ve been depriving my blog long enough, it’s time that I start posting a lot more