The Tiger Cub...

White Belt received his Tiger Cub badge tonight at his Blue And Gold Banquet. Doesn't he look handsome in his uniform? He worked very hard this last year to earn this badge. He's been excited about all of them so far but this one is like the culmination of the entire year. Very exciting!!!

The Itsy Bitsy Spider...

Note to Self...

When out after 8 p.m. do not, and I repeat DO NOT, drink regular coffee...especially when at a coffee shop type venue. Otherwise you will be awake, unable to fall asleep, until well after midnight.

UPDATE...I ended up staying awake until 2:30 watching a really awful Jessica Alba/Hugh Dancy movie called "The Sleeping Dictionary" since I couldn't sleep anyway. It was a really really really awful movie. Then I finally fell asleep after three only to be woken up by Dirty about an hour later and not able to fall right back to sleep. And to top everything off Monkey was up by 6:15. And now I have to go to SP's to watch her kids so she can go to a speech evaluation for S1 and then lunch with her husband. I would love nothing more than to come home directly after dropping off White Belt and letting Monkey destroy the house while I take a nap. I am so freakin' exhausted. I'm definitely going to need coffee. ;^)

Another update...I realized why I was so buzzed after my coffee which was technically an "Americano". When I get coffee out I usually get either a small or medium/tall or grande/12oz. or 16oz. LATTE. So last night when I got a regular cup which was at least 12 oz. of coffee that is like having twice what I normally have. So I technically had two of my regular-sized cups of coffee last night.

And I did have to have more coffee today which is what is getting me through the day. That and not being too sedentary for fear of passing out. I'm about to go workout while Monkey naps. He's already sleeping so I need to get cracking. I will say though that I've found that I enjoy the "Americano" and it's also much cheaper than a latte because the most expensive thing about the latte is the milk. I may or may not be having the equivalent amount of fat and calories. I think that it might actually be less but there's no way that I'm going to try and calculate that at this moment. That's too much for me to think about right now.

I heart mat Pilates...

Last week I did a Pilates routine 3 days!!! To anyone who works out regularly this is lame. However, it is a new milestone for me. This morning I woke up at 6:30 a.m. and did a mat routine. YAY!!! I'm still working on the cardio aspect of working out. I have a mini-stepper but my heart rate doesn't really raise that much when I use it. It is basically just something to keep me moving instead of sitting on my bottom and doing nothing...like I am right now.

My motivation right now has to do with Joseph Pilates' motto for using Pilates to strengthen your core as well as the rest of your body, "You will feel better in 10 sessions, look better in 20 sessions, and have a completely new body in 30 sessions!" The exclaimation may just be my video instructor, Ana Caban, being her inspirational peppy self. I've never seen or heard Joseph Pilates speak so maybe it was him...I just don't know. But for anyone who is really bad at simple math, or have maybe just gotten lost in my rambling, I'm down 4 sessions. Only 26 sessions to go for my "completely new body". If I can keep on target with 3 sessions a week I could have my transformed body in 10 weeks!!! Exciting I know.

I may only have completed 4 sessions but I will say that I am already feeling better. I definitely feel that my tush and my tummy are feeling tighter. I notice that even when I'm at rest (standing or now sitting and typing) I feel my muscles are tensed...even if right now it's just a little. :D I read once in a magazine that for my body-type (that would be short aka petite with an hour-glass figure and when I put on even five pounds it makes a B.I.G. difference) Pilates is actually the ideal workout for me. I personally think that Pilates is the ideal workout for ANYONE because it can so easily be modified and challenging for all skill levels. Plus I think that any time you can stretch while working out that's a good thing because I don't like to take the extra time to stretch. I like the flexibility that I gain in addition to the strength. I know that yoga also incorporates these two things, but even though I like yoga, I don't like it as much as Pilates.

Eventually I want to be able to afford, and have time for for that matter, to go to a Pilates studio and use Pilates equipment with my workout. Although right now mat Pilates is all I really need...because I'm in the very beginning of getting back in shape.

Reasons NOT to run with a blanket over your head...

Day 2 of a Pilates Extravaganza

Okay so maybe "extravaganza" is too big of a word for the second day of doing a Pilates routine. But I've had the motivation to do it two days this week. The second day was even at 6:30...in the morning!!! I will say that my shoulders are still stiff from day one so doing anything today was painful. My legs and abs felt good though. Woo Hoo!!! Go Me!!! And PPG there is no way that I will make another blog about this type of stuff. I'm already spending way too much time with this one and I have a new Jon Krakauer book ready for me to pick up at the library. :D

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr................

That's me growling because maneuvering the parking lot for school drop off and pick up is similar to driving in some sort of demolition derby. This morning I was trying to back up into a spot. I do this because I am nearly hit each time I back out of a spot. So while trying to back into a spot someone, a teacher no less, races behind my car as I'm backing up. Very frustrating. Then this afternoon there was one spot left. Well actually there was only half of a spot left because some inconsiderate person parked in two spaces. This person turns out to be even more inconsiderate later. Monkey fell asleep and instead of bringing a stoller in I carried him so my arm and neck are killing me. White Belt was later than usual coming down. We have to walk to the opposite end of the parking lot to get to the one spot that was open after I drove around the parking lot twice. Then as I'm slowly backing out of my space in the one break in the line of cars opens up double-space-parker speeds out of his space and then stops behind my car. The line in front of him kept going, but of course he just sits there knowing full well that I need to back out before the next extremely long line of cars comes. AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not only all this but I've come to realize that NO ONE and I mean NO ONE makes a complete stop in St. Louis. This all came about because there was a crackdown across 44 in old McRee town which is now Botanical Heights. Everyone on our neighborhood listserv was complaining about the crackdown which got me thinking about people stopping at stop signs. NO ONE does. Everyone seems to just briefly pause then speed on through. And what I also notice is that people driving behind those that do actually stop, and wait the required 3 seconds, is that they honk, go around, and act like you're inconveniencing them by stopping...AT A STOP SIGN!!!!!!! Who cares if we have more stop signs than other places. It's because we have more reckless drivers who are inconsiderate of other people. It doesn't give you the right to disobey the law.

I thought that venting about this would help but I may actually be getting more worked up. So I'll stop and know that I've put this out into the universe. Maybe now I can put it behind me a little bit.