*** In Remembrance of Jon Glyer ***

Where to begin? I don't know if I can even put into words what I am feeling at this moment, but I will try.

My close friend my high school passed away a couple of days ago in a tragic and freak accident at work. A machine that he was working with went wrong and came crashing down on his head, killing him instantly. He was 27 years old.

Now I only knew him closely for about 2 years since I switched high schools and met him my Junior year. We became fast friends. Jon was the type of person that got along with everyone. Jon was the type of person you could always rely on. Jon was the type of person that could make you smile just because he wanted to. It was seemingly effortless for him to be such a great person. And I know that he held God so dear to his heart which made him even more of an inspiration. Jon and I had many talks throughout our friendship about anything under the sun, we went to a dance together, and we even went on a date... but both realized very quickly we were much better off as just friends. :) I have such great memories with him that I will cherish forever and I will never forget him.

But just knowing, that one of my graduating classmates is gone really took a toll on me yesterday and today. Being so young at 27, leaving behind a beautiful wife of over 3 years, and an adoring family, really makes you put things into perspective. For some, it may be re-evaluating their life in certain areas or as a whole. For me, it's reaffirming my belief that God is ultimately in control of anything and everything. God can step in at any moment, and boy does he.... especially when we least expect it. I gave my heart to Christ in 2005 and was baptized with my husband, hand in hand, in 2009. I try very hard to devote time daily to His word, spend time sharing it with my children, and hopefully instilling into them a peace, a love, a joy like no other. Jon certainly knew all this from a very young age because his family brought him up in God's light and now he is dancing on streets of gold!!! I pray I will see him there someday... and that my children will follow.

So here's to Jon. An incredible man of God. To all those giggles in drama, stories at lunch, long talks on the steps while eating the greatest cookies a school can provide. You lived a great and fulfilling life and I guess it was your time to go Home to the Father. May you look down on us always, knowing you've changed lives, befriended many, and opened hearts of the shamed. We love you Jon. We will miss you dearly.

Dance Workouts and that thing called Jillian Michaels

Working out has been almost a daily thing lately, *pat on the back*, and I've actually found exercises that I enjoy! Well, mainly dancing, but hey, it works for my body.

We have Verizon Fios, hence the channel called Fit TV. Look for it, it's quite awesome. Immersed in their daily runs are 30-60min "dance" routine episodes that really get your heart pumping. I've been recording them (since my favorite ones come on at 4am and 2pm) and I'll pick and choose which ones I do in the morning after dropping my son off at school. They have Shimmy (which is 30mins of belly dancing), All Star Workouts (which is a different type of exercise daily including yoga, hip hop, latin dance to name a few) and Exhale Core Fusion (which is dancer type streches and toning). Being a dancer practically my whole life, my body really responds to these types of exercises and I've noticed a significant difference after 2 weeks of being pretty consistent.




































Now onto the Jillian Michaels Wii Fit game. This is hardcore. Sure, you can fudge the Fit board and make Jillian think you're doing better than you actually are, but if you really try and work on one of her premade "resolutions", it's a very good workout. So I've been doing her workout 3 times a week, and one of my "dance" workouts 2-3 other days.






















We have the P90X series and let me be the first to say, it's not for me. It definitely gets the job done and you will hurt majorly the next day, but that type of strength training just isn't for me. I'm not looking to bulk up, just rather tone and slim. :)








So my "resolution" with the Jillian Michaels' program is over a span of 3 months. And in those three months, I want to lose at least 2 lbs per week til reaching my goal, then keep it off. I'm 134lbs right now, but I'm 5'3 and I would like to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight of 120. So we shall see how it goes. I smell a challenge coming on... ;) I'll update as I go along. A little encouragement would be nice as well.

Now on to showering my psychotic children that are running around pretending to be ghosts at the moment...

~A Girls Night In~

After being sick all last week, my wonderful husband gave me a night away from "responsibility" and took the kids down to his parents place. So a few of my girls came over for a now legendary Girls Night In. Let me tell you, we had an absolute blast! I haven't laughed that hard in sooooo long and that girl bonding time was so needed. :)

We made brownies, drank cider, watched scary ghost shows, made crafty tote bags, did our own ghost hunt (lol), and played Wii Fit til 4am!!! Yup, 4am. We slept in the next morning, ate breakfast in bed, watched a few more shows, then napped til 3:30pm when we finally decided to get up. lol I have NOT done that sort of sleeping in/napping since before I had kids! It was amazing!!!! We definitely need to do it again soon... maybe not the 4am because I don't know if my body can handle that anymore, lol, but we shall see.








































So now it's back to the daily grind of making lunches, helping with homework, cleaning and more cleaning, laundry, dropping off and picking up from school, dance class, and starting next week: baseball practices! Some may say I'm crazy... I just think I'm blessed. :)

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Sick Sick Yum Yum

I feel like I can't get a darn thing done. And literally the only thing keeping me going right now is Mucinex and Hot Chocolate... lots and lots of hot chocolate. I never realized how amazing it was until the warm liquid hits the back of my throat and I can feel it soothing all the way down. Not to mention, the smell of the cocoa (from the little that I can smell, lol) is amazing.

So today, I heart hot chocolate.

And I hate being sick.

The end.

Far too much weighing on my "plastic" heart...

So I took a breather from loads of laundry and cleaning to watch Julie & Julia today while my kids were either napping or preoccupied. ;) And I use that term very lightly.

Watching the movie reminded me of how much I've been neglecting the very thing that allowed to speak my mind, this blog! I may not have many followers, but someday, people will read what I have to say and agree, disagree, hate it, love it, and all write their opinions... because that's what it's all about. Right?

However, life has been pretty crazy lately. Finally the holidays are over and I can see straight again... damn eggnog. lol My kids got more toys than I think I've had in my whole life. We're very blessed I must say and I never take one single day for granted.

Last Saturday, we had a couple of birthday parties to attend. Luckily, at different times so we were able to schedule in both. The first party was for a 6 year old in my son's Kindergarten class. We went to one of those indoor bounce house places for a couple of hours and since the workers there take over everything (thank goodness!), us moms that stayed were able to sit and gossip, ummm I mean chat for a little while. Somehow we got on the topic of dentists and orthodontists and one mom was explaining how she didn't feel comfortable going to a certain orthodontist because all his assistants looked "plastic" and well, like, *pointing finger* like me. Me? ME? I must have given her some sort of strange look because immediately she "recovered" by saying, "Oh but you're ok because you're nice." Now I don't want to say anything mean, and she's not completely unfortunate looking if she wore a little makeup and lost weight... but that makes me sound more 'plastic' doesn't it? Does it really matter that I like to wear cute clothes and do my makeup and hair? Is it a bad thing that I like to workout and look good for my husband? Does that make me a plastic bitch? So that got me thinking... what makes a person 'plastic'? I guess there's the bitchy plastic bitch. The nice plastic bitch. And the following plastic bitch. I just don't get it. Should I be accepting that as a backhanded compliment? Either way, she was really out of line with what she said and apparently by the look on my face, she knew it.

On to the next topic: my husband's ex. I feel like I should just be retitling my blog to that. LOL Probably get a lot of followers then. ;) My mom went and saw a taping of the Dr. Phil show and brought home a book called "No One's the Bitch". It's well written by two wives: the ex wife and the current one and how they have succeeded to fight for years, resolve their differences, and now get along so well that they have written a book together. So I started reading it. There's no way in hell I will ever get to the point of writing a book with my husband's ex, but I thought the journaling sections and what the book covered was worth the shot. I've tried to be nice. I've tried to uncover my deep insecurities. I've tried to make the whole thing all about my step-daughter and the minute I do, it gets trampled on by that whale. Sorry. Had to be said. My step-daughter has been ecstatic to play t-ball with my oldest son this season. Sign ups are tomorrow so I wrote her mother a very nice (and detailed) email letting her know Jordan wanted to play. To make an extremely long past couple of days shorter, the bitch has said no. Mainly because she doesn't want to take the time for practices and/or games that would fall on "her" days. What kind of mother basically tells their child, that they are too busy to support them in extra curricular activities??? She is 30, lives at HOME with her parents, works a part time job and collects an obscene amount of child support from us a month. Man she must have it hard. Here I am, battling my ex-husband who doesn't want to pay me a dime in child support when he hasn't seen or spoken to his son since April of 2007! And here my wonderful husband is, fighting with his ex to spend more quality time with his daughter, letting her do things she really wants to do! Why can't she see this? I wish a slap across the face would get her to wake up, but then again, as I was writing that email, I knew she was going to say no. So sad. I feel so terrible for my Jordan.

So..... WE'RE SIGNING HER UP ANYWAYS! She can do practices and games when she's with us. We can't be the only family out there that has joint custody and problems with a neglective parent. It's good for kids to get invloved in these activities and as long as I can help it, my kids will be doing them. Don't get my wrong, I'm not forcing them into anything. If they try something and hate it, they never have to do it again. But giving up or quitting is NOT AN OPTION.

Come on and follow me. I promise to update more. This should be a lot of fun!

Time for some egg salad sandwhiches and homemade Knott's biscuits. :) G'night all.