well, my friends are blogging about their weight loss and I just sit here getting fatter. This year has been overwhelming so far. Christmas was wonderful, had Patrick out here, the weather was nice, got good grades in my class I was taking. The students I teach earned good grades so I felt awesome. Steven got me both Jillian Michaels Ultimate Fitness and Wii Active for Christmas so I had workout plans for indoors until I can get outside again. Christmas day Patrick left to go back to Virginia. I didn't realize that I was so exhausted until after he left. I started back to teaching on January 4th and picked up a lot of substituing at work. The paycheck liked it but the good exercise habits I was hoping to build didn't materialize. I find that right now I am having issues in putting on 3 or 4 different sets of clothes in one day. I don't like it. It bothers me to make that much laundry or exert that much effort. So when something came along to stop it I didn't put up much of a fight. In January we had some fantastic rain storms. Of course Steven was still riding his bike, but picked up a stone during one of the storms and did horrible things to his brakes and rims. So his bike has been out of operation since the middle of January. Having to take him to the metro atleast 2 days(if not all 5) a week and substituting made sure I didn't ride my bike or keep up my exercise routine when I got home. I don't always appreciate an audience(my children) that tells me they can do it better or that I am doing it wrong so I don't exercise when they are home. So there has been no exercise since his bike broke which is about 6 weeks now. I have also taken this semester off from classes and have found that I drifted from my goals a little. The break has been good, but I am ready to go now. Steven keeps telling me public accountability helps so counting on y'all for some help.

It was my goal to run in a 5k on the day before Valentines Day. It was a source of major disappointment when I didn't run. However, I did take Steven out for a wonderful Valentines dinner at the J&G Steakhouse atop the wonderful Phoneican Resort on Camelback Mountain. Finding some thing to wear was a real pain in the butt and he will tell you he saw about 3 outfits before i got in the car. so new goals:
I want to particpate in the SheRox(http://www.sheroxtri.com/) sprint distance triathlon on May 8th. That is a half mile swim, a 13 mile bike ride and a 3 mile run. I feel as if I can do the bike ride already. The swim will probaby be the most challenging since it is still a little cool for the pool(at least to my thinking). The run would just be reallllllllly slow right now. So I plan on getting back in the saddle by training for it and telling you all about my progress. Steven can take pictures with his spiffy new camera and you can tell me about your efforts. Send me pictures of you too so that we can encourage each other no matter what our goals.

right now here are my stats(no laughing or gasping)
weight no idea not going to find out yet
measurements:
neck 14.5
upper arm 14
bust 44.5
waist 40.5
abdomen 46.5
hips 46
thigh 26
size 16/18

goals:
to reduce that size down to a 10
by July 1

bike ride would like to be doing 100 mile rides by Sept 1 with Steven
swim want to be able to swim that mile
running: 1/2 marathon by next January?
hiking with Steven on the hard hikes by the fall

Secondary goal: to knock Steven's socks off when on our 16th anniversary August 1st I put on a dress that is so little and sexy that he has to deal with all the other guys looking at me when he takes me to dinner.(Start saving dear!!!!!)

Slow month

Despite having some great weather, we have not been able to get out to do much. The first problem is that both of my bikes have had severe mechanical breakdowns. The good news is that my commuting bike has repairs underway.

However, I suspect we will be getting out more soon. I have recently purchased a new camera, a Nikon D-5000. So you can expect some fantastic pictures on this site in the near future. One of the things I am going to try to do is take at least one picture a day with the camera and post the best one of the day to an online web album.

Happy Birthday Lindsey!

Today Lindsey turned 14 and Steven shot some portraits for her.

Snow Day!

With all of our east coast friends being buried in snow, we decided not to be left out. The high country had been hit with a lot of snow over the last two weeks so we headed out on US 60 to see what we could find.

Before we got to Globe, we found a great spot with a waterfall on the side of the road. While there was not any snow here, we did find some rock climbers on the rock face.

Eventually we hit a high enough elevation where there was a lot of snow and we pulled off into one of the Tonto National Forest campgrounds to have a little fun. Of course a snowball fight immediately took place, but we explored the area some to find a beautiful wilderness setting for out snow fun. The girls made snow angels and snowmen, but made sure the snowmen met an early end.

On the way out, we taught the girls a valuable lesson about how to get a car unstuck from the snow and up an icy hill. Steven knew that on the way in that it might be iffy on getting out, but felt that it could be done. There were tire tracks in the snow most of the way to the pavement, but the car still got stuck halfway up. So with Dawn behind the wheel and Steven with the girls teaching them how to dig out the snow from the tires and how to "rock" the car up hill we were able to get up the drive onto the main road with no issues.

We had a nice lunch by a full Salt River at the Salt River Canyon and then continued on to Show Low. Originally we had planned to play in the snow between Show Low and Payson, but they had received another four to eight inches of snow in the middle of the week and many of the side roads that we would have pulled off on had a two to three foot snow bank blocking them.

So how do you unwind after such a fun day in the wintery snow? By opening the windows of the house up the next day to let in the warm air of course.

Once again, Steven was fortunate enough to borrow a real camera (Nikon D-80) so he could take these great pictures.

Between Superior and Globe:


Fun in the snow at Tonto Rim National Forest (US 60 past Globe):


Salt River Canyon:

Surviving the storm of the century

Right now we are in the middle of the "wet" season where we get about an inch of rain a month. Often a huge winter storm will hit the state dropping a lot of snow at places with an elevation of 5000 feet or more, while we see a quarter inch of rain. Not this past week.

Two storms hit the area with the first one starting to move in on Sunday and lasting til Tuesday. This storm dropped a lot of rain on the area where we saw over an inch of rain on Tuesday night alone. Then the second storm hit Thursday morning and brought with it sustained winds in our neighbor of over 55MPH, the lowest atmospheric pressure ever recorded in Phoenix, and a lot more rain. Things finally cleared out on Saturday. When it was all said and done, we had almost 2.5 inches of rain in our neighborhood.

Some of the media folks were calling this the storm of the century due to the massive flooding that occurred, especially to the north and west when they had over seven inches of rain in one day. We survived with only minor damage to a few roofing shingles that Steven fixed on Saturday.

Here are some pictures that Steven took during the storm this week. Steven was fortunate enough to borrow a real camera for a while so he could take better pictures.



Most neighborhoods have a park that is designed to become a storm water retention basin during heavy rain:


We can see snow on the mountains in the distance:


Bonus picture! A couple of weeks ago, the girls took a polar bear plunge in the pool: