Finally on Vacation!!!!

Yes, we made it to Mexico!  I take Bonine (meclizine) for motion sickness while flying and I think it made me really sleepy. But I will get to that when I get to that point in my timeline.  :)

I had thought we would leave home about 5pm.  We actually left at 7pm, so not too bad. We drove to Chicago for a non-stop flight, stayed in a hotel, left our car at the hotel and they dropped us off at the airport.  So for the cost of one night in the hotel, we park our car free and get a ride to the airport.  Very nice.  On the way to Chicago we played a little game, 'Did you Bring?'  As we drove, we began to ask if we remembered to bring certain things.  Passports, extra cash, etc...  I realized I forgot my hair comb - small thing.  Fred thought he left the extra cash at home on his dresser or in the pants pocket that he put in the laundry.  Ooops.  Then he remembered he did pack a second pair of pants and those were the ones.  Yes, we had the cash.  Whew!  I put the passports in our carryon bag the day before and remembered the Bonine this time so I didn't have to get something on the way - AGAIN.

We got the to hotel by 10:30pm, checked in, settled in the room.  verified our flight time - 8:20am.  Be at airport by 6:00am. Drats.  The hotel wanted us ready to go 1/2 hour before that. 5:30.  We were up at 4:30 to shower, dress and go.  Glad I brought my protein shake, because there is no hotel breakfast at that time, besides it would have been all carbs anyway.  So much for sleep. 

It was interesting in the hotel lobby, though.  The hotel clerk was from India, the shuttle driver was hispanic.  Another couple had some sort of British accent and one gentleman was obviously from Africa.  All spoke English, but they had a hard time understanding each other with their native dialects.  It was pretty funny.  We just smile and enjoy the simple amusement of it all.  :)

We did get some breakfast at the airport at 6:30.  Check in and through security went smooth - just have to be patient.  Amazing how many women travel at that time of day in full make-up.  I am not one of those.  Flight left about 20 min late, but we did not see one snowflake before leaving, so we missed the storm and absolutely no flight delays.  Yippeee!

We got exit row seats on the plane, which was great for leg-room, but no reclining of the seats.  I was almost asleep on take-off and slept a good portion of the flight.  We landed in Cancun at noon, right on time.  The arrival paperwork was not the English version, but Spanish and they did not hand out any customs forms.  They did have a copy of a form in English so we did have a cheat sheet.  It took an hour to get through the airport.   Another funny story, though.   We finally made it to the baggage carousels and the Mexican authorites were taking a 'drug' dog around all the people and baggage.  It stopped at the carryon bag of an older lady. The dog sniffed and wanted into her bag licking its chops.  So the Authorities opened her bag and looked through it.  She had brought some store-bought sausages with her.  They looked similar to pepperoni, but I have no idea what kind.  I felt bad for her, but we were amused at the obsurdity of it all.  Then a woman standing next to me says, "That gives new meaning to 'hide the sausage'."  It was all I could do not to fall on the floor laughing.  The lady with the sausages did not get to keep them and we figure the dog got the eat them on break.

It is an hour+ van ride to the hotel and I slept again on the way there.  Fred said it was a better ride than the one last year in a taxi.  I'll We had dinner and I took another nap after dinner.  We were supposed to have a concierge level hotel room when we checked in, but did not.  So we changed rooms just before dinner.

Yesterday, we upgraded our membership from Palace Resorts to Hard Rock Hotels and got a Presidential suite.  Yup, been here 2 days and in our 3rd room.  The hotel we are staying in will become the Hard Rock Riviera this fall and we want to be able to continue to come here.  Should be exciting.  Let me tell ya, this suite is amazing.  Before we just had the one room with a jacuzzi, bed, small desk, dresser, bathroom and closet.  Now we have two bathrooms, dinning room, livingroon, bedroom, and a sort of kitchen(no stove, but a microwave), a huge patio, ocean view, a pillow menu and we can have aromatherapy scents in the room.  Yup, like this a lot.  :)

Yesterday I went to the yoga class - great workout.  We were all sweating 15 min into it.  No yoga today, but there is a body sculpting class at 10.  Tomorrow will be kick boxing.  Should be fun.

Have a great day! And I think the sun is trying to come out.  Had rain in the night and first thing this morning.

Love ya,
Bren

I did it!!! - got brave, too :)

You have to promise - absolutely no laughing, but you can smile.  :)    I began the exercise and new eating habits on August 1st 2011. Moving the sleeper sofa in the basement the day before, I hurt my right hip - BUT began anyway doing only the exercises I could comfortably do.  {After seeing these 'Before' pics, there was no way I was going to NOT start this program}

 Three weeks into the program I caught the nastiest cold/virus I have had in years - delayed me 3 weeks.  So I started it over with the week one workout.  During those 3 'sick' weeks, I kept up with the new eating habits (or at least kept that as the main focus of how I was eating).  Some days I was too sick to care.  Missed the better part of 3 weeks of work, too.

I kept at it.  If I had a week when I didn't exercise enough, I did it over.  This is why it has taken me 5 months to complete a 13 week program.  I didn't notice any changes for several weeks, but felt so much better physically that that reward alone was good enough to keep me going.

Yah, that's me smiling!  Look how baggy those sport shorts are!  Yipeee!!!!  Just 5 short months ago - they were stretched to the limit.  I also can't believe it, but I think you can see the outline of a 6-pack!  Now, there is still room for improvement and as I have written earlier - the 'baby' tummy may always be there in some form.  I am so very happy it is so very much shrunk.

A word of encouragement to absolutely everyone who reads this - YOU CAN DO THIS IF I CAN DO THIS.  I am no one of any particular strength, fortitude, or have super powers.  I just kept at it, even if it was only 15 min a day.  I did the best I could, recorded what I did to see my progress and kept going.  If we quit, then we never know what we could have accomplished.

Have a wonderful day!  I know I am.  :)

Love Ya,

Bren



Awesome Routine by our Cheerleaders!

     I got to go watch our Cheerleaders perform today in Freedom, WI at a competition.  It is always a great time and a lot of fun to watch all the teams.  There are several categories and the teams are also grouped by size.  That way a co-ed large team is not up against an all-girl small or a cheer dance.  They all have different requirements.  Those co-ed large teams are really fun to watch - way cool to see the guys get so involved!  We only have a few guys and no one on our team can do much tumbling, which is required in the other categories.  We usually can manage a stunt team for regional competition and that doesn't have to have a guy - but very handy for the upper body strength.

http://youtu.be/CTrY7M7JUxE    is the link to watch the video of their performance today.  This is my first attempt at video recording one of their routines, but turned out fairly well. If you pause the video and let it completely load, then it plays without stopping.   They move around quite a bit, so I can't say exactly which one is Alexa and they all look so much alike.  :)

Enjoy!!!!

Love Ya,
Bren

Whew! The holidays are done. . . Now What????

     It was actually a very nice holiday time for our family.  The baking, gift buying(then getting boxes in the mail to arrive in time for Christmas) and the regular stuff we do all year long does get somewhat crazy.  It was good to see family and chat with those far away.  I am so grateful for all the ways we have to communicate now.  It really keeps me feeling close to everyone.
     I am finishing up week 12 of the P90X.  I decided I needed to redo week 11 because the first time through I only exercised twice.  Then I had a repeat of week 12, so I finally got it done - or will tomorrow.  I still feel really good and want to keep in shape now that I have improved it.  I know, round is a shape, but slimmer and more of an hour glass is way better.  :)  This weekend I will take the 'After' photos, compare them to the 'Before' photos and most likely post them here.  It's been fun to have my clothes fit loosely and get back into so many I grew out of.
      I will also be packing for our vacation to Mexico on Thursday.  Ooooh goodie!  I so need a vacation.  I have tanned some and know what clothes to take.  We don't have a lot of plans while we are there.  Some spa treatments (massages, pedicures, facials and the water therapy lounge) feel great for some pampering.  I am not one to over do one these things, still feels awkward for me to endulge.  I can handle laying poolside, oceanside or partcipating in some workout classes.  No schedule here we come!!!!

  Even if I wasn't going away for a vacation,I would try to find more down time.  That is much needed in most of our lives.

Love ya,
  Bren
    

Last week til Christmas!!!!

Time is flying by so fast.  I really missed workouts in Week 11, so I re-did Week 11 last week.  I feel much better, kind of plateaued but keeping at it.  I have had lots of fun as I have tried on clothes in my wardrobe and now they are too big.  We are headed to Mexico again next month - CAN'T WAIT.  Had to try on the swim suits, too.  One fits very well.  One suit the bottoms fit perfect, but the top is made out of two pieces of fabric apparently different kinds and one faded.  The other suit has a bottoms and two tops.  Bottoms fit, but the tops are way too big.  They have pre-shaped cups and are way baggy.  I know that is a lot of suits.  They are two piece suits, but not bikinis - they are tankinis.  My stomach is always covered.  Having given birth to six kids there are lot of stretch marks and no one - no one really wants to see that.  Yes, I do think of others.  Anyway, when you are in Mexico, you are always in a swim suit.  Running around for a whole week in one suit gets gross, so you need more than one.  I ordered a new swim suit top to replace the faded one and will have two nice suits to wear.

Meg had her driving temps in her hands all of 10 min before she lost the card.  I didn't stress too much about it, it had to be somewhere.  She did find them 2 days later and all was well in the world again.  :)  Now to plan a time to get her some practice.  I guess Dad gets the first lesson with her.

I had my annual shopping day with my Mom.  We have fun shopping, planning and having a nice lunch somewhere.  This year was Olive Garden.  Their soup and salad lunch is perfect for a busy day. I only have two gift cards left to buy and the gifts are all done, even wrapped!  We have made some cookies and will get busy with more this week.  I has Alexa help me with a collage photo for cards this year.  I have our entire family in the collage.  Snapfish should be shipping my order out tomorrow - then I can get my cards out later in the week.  Probably won't be delivered until after Christmas, but that will just have to be OK.  I'll work on my letter this week. 

We've gotten through two choir concerts and just have the band concert on Tuesday evening.  The choir concerts were very nice this year.  I love Christmas music, which works out well with so many concerts to go to.  I listen to it all the time and get a new CD each year.

With everything that we need to get done at the holidays it is easy to drift away from why we celebrate Christmas in the first place.  I am very grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ.  He has completely changed my life.  He took me as I was and worked with me, guided me, loved me, taught me and strengthened me.  I have a long way to go, but have come so far.  I would not be who I am today without Him.  I am deeply grateful for His sacrifice for us.  I am no one of any great impotance in the world, but He helped me learn I am a daughter of God, with a divine heritage and divine potential.  Long way to go - yes, but He helps me to feel that it is entirely possible.  There are many days I feel like there isn't anything I couldn't accomplish.  I certainly understand many things are possible with His help.  Everyone has trials.  We have them to learn and grow and to learn to rely on Him.  When we forget our selfish wants and focus on what He wants us to do, then we have gained all we could ever hope for.  Amazing how that works.      I have often wondered what Mary felt.  Having given birth to my children and raising them I have a pretty good understanding of things.  But what did Mary feel?  Did she really know how that child would be the Savior of us all?

Pretty amazing,
May you have a blessed Christmas.
Love ya,
Bren

Another soon to be driver in the house!

   Yup, Meg has her temps!  We figure that she needed to get them as soon as possible since Alexa will be leaving for college in August of 2012.  Meg has to have her temps 6 months before she can actually take the behind the wheel road test.  So June 9th is the earliest she can try for her driver's license.   Some days this is just too weird for me.  Where has all the time gone?  Some days it feels like I worried about all the wrong things and as productive as I was getting things done - I feel like I missed so much, or don't remember the things I thought I would.
   I still would love to fly back out to Bry's and help her by just holding that sweet baby.  My heart is just screaming, 'He needs his grandma!'  So much to do here and that flight takes money.  My day job is such a distraction and I am so distracted while trying to work.  My comfort zone is doing several things at once and my brain is always working through some plan or project while getting something else done.  Right now, I guess, it's working for me. 
   The Christmas shopping is about done, yet I feel like have forgotten something.  Keeping it simple, but nice.  Time to get the cookies made so I can get boxes shipped.  Tim and Bry won't be home for Christmas, but sending them some cookies may help them feel 'home'.  Oh, yeah, Christmas cards.  Need to make those, too.
   Still working out, but the schedules are very tight.  It has been great fun to try on clothes in my closet to see what fits and what doesn't.  I found 3 tops and one pair of pants in a bin under my bed.  One of the shirts I had never worn.  It was just a tad tight when I bought it at the Good Will store - well guess what! It fits perfectly now.  Sweet deal!  My shape hasn't really changed, which makes it look like I haven't lost a thing - then I put on old clothes and they are big or now fit.  Felt good to take a big box of clothes to the GoodWill yesterday and drop them off.  Oh and the other day I picked up some more whey powder at GNC and I can't help but talk about the exercise program and weight loss - I just feel so good!  I told the clerk (this big, buff tan fellow) that I was using the P90X program, but it was more like the P30-45X program for me as I have yet to completely finish a cardio workout.  He said that actually was pretty good and most people start out at the P15X.  :)  Yay, Me!!!!
   
Have a great weekend!!!!  And remember, that every bit of a workout makes a difference -
Love ya,
Bren

Back in the Swing

     I returned from being out with Bry, Mark and newly arrived Korbin on Nov. 21st. Yes, Thanksgiving week.  We didn't have big plans for the long weekend, which was so nice; but always lots to do.  I worked the 22nd and 23rd, then Turkey day and getting lots of things accomplished for both scout troops.  Never, never enough hours in a day.  The 28th was back to Seminary in the mornings and just lots of things every day.  Oh, and add Scott's Eagle project to the mix and I don't seem to have much time.
     Don't misunderstand here-I fully acknowledge that I AGREE to do all of these things.  Also know, that I have said NO to some things as well.  I really enjoy being busy and getting things done.  I feel really good knowing that my efforts do make a difference.  Would there be someone else who would step up to accomplish the same things with the scouts? Yup, Seminary? Yup  My job at the school district? Yup.  As a Mom - probably not - at least not for a period of time (knowing that too is flexible). 
      It was hard to leave Bry & her family.  I am such a 'do-er' that I want to be there to 'do'.  I saw and heard a new baby at church today.  The same sounds sweet little Korbin was making.  My eyes teared up immediately and now even thinking about it.  Bry had one rough day last week and I wanted to get on a plane.  I will just put her family in Heavenly Father's hands and keep her number close so I can call or be available if she needs me.  I reflected on my own path of motherhood.  It is a long path, with many wonderful experiences and lots of rough ones.  The path has made me much stronger.  I need to let Bry's path make her stronger, too.  OK, Faith, you and I will become much better friends.  :)
     Keeping myself busy, keeps me productive, happy and a long way out of trouble.  Still working on the P90X program.  I did weigh-in out at Bry's and was down 15 pounds.  I am hoping that number is now closer to 20.  It is really a joy to get into pants that I haven't worn in at least 3 years.  I put on an outfit that I bought in Colorado just before I came home after Bry's heart surgery - It is way too big!  :)  That's just a shame.  Makes me feel fabulous, though!    I start week 11 tomorrow.  The 'baby' tummy I have is being very stubborn, but I will win out in the end.  It will shrink!  I will weigh in again in 2 weeks, take the 'after' pictures and decide if I feel comfortable posting them here.  There will be a noticeable change - that alone feels great.
      We have our January vacation planned and so looking forward to getting away.  January is so blah that it is great to have something fun to look forward to.  Fred & I really need that time, too.  We didn't take the time alone together when the kids were young.  It's really hard with 6-8 kids in the house to get away for more than 24 hours.  When all the kids were out of diapers, and all in school it was easier to have someone else care for them for a few days.  Now we only have 3 teenagers in the house.  They are way easy to care for (as long as the attitude is good) and Tim, being almost 27, can handle them and enforce rules when needed.
     We are well on our way with Christmas.  The high school choir concert was yesterday - very nice.  I am so amazed when my children volunteer for solos.  I did once and it did not go well, so never again.  I think it was one of the best choir concerts they have done in several years.  Must have been the change in music, they did some different songs.  Still the old traditionals, but no 'Santa Baby'.  I detest that song.  High School girls just should not be allowed to even attempt it.  Next time you hear that song, think of a high school girl trying to fill that role.  It will make you want to hurl.
     The middle school choir concert is next in about 10 days and the midlle school band concert is a few days after that.  I look forward to the baking.  Love the gingersnaps - my grandmother's recipe is the best.  Snickerdoodles, monster cookies, marble bark and birch logs.  Then we give most of them out as gifts to the post office, the home mailperson, bus driver, and others that I usually forget but try not to.
   We try to keep it simple, but with our family being more extended each year it doesn't always feel simple. 

May each of you find ways to keep meaning in Christmas this year.  Family - it's one of the few things we will have in the next life.  Make it count.

Love ya,
Bren