Game Day

I love Friday at boot camp. It is what they call "game day" and I really enjoy the games we play. Today, we played a game similar to last Friday except we played poker with the cards. There were 5 stations set up with 6-7 cards at each station. The stations were spaced out 30-40 feet from each other and the point was to jog to each station and pick the card that you though would give your group the best hand.

Unlike before, this time regardless of the number on the card you did 10 reps and if it required one limb at a time you did 10 per side.

First up, butt:

hearts= hydrant kicks (on hands and knees, leg up like peeing on a hydrant and kick out)
diamonds= cross over lunges (cross right leg in front of left and lower or vice versa)
spades= butt burner (on hands and knees, lift bent leg in air behind you)
clubs= squat back kick

Second, arms:

hearts= wide push ups
diamonds= shoulder press push ups (my personal fav!)
spades= close body push up (hands/arms are against body)
clubs= tricep dips

Last, legs:

hearts= squat and jump
diamonds= jump lunges (lunge and jump into lunge with other leg)
spades= squat front kick
clubs= frog jump (squat and touch ground then jump up in air)

All done! Now it is time for abs...

Hold each pose for 30 seconds and do 2 sets:
superman (on tummy arms and legs up off the ground)
banana/boat (opposite of superman, arms and legs 6-10 inches off the ground)
6 inch hold (just legs off the ground)
plank
right plank
left plank

Good job! Now go be sore for a couple of day!! Woo Hoo.

Can you feel yourself getting skinnier? I can see results in my arms. I think I need to work my butt more though.

French Pear Pie.... yummy!

I was cleaning out my fridge today when I discovered 3 VERY ripe pears. They were not the prettiest pieces of fruit but I hated to throw them out.

Thankfully I had printed out a recipe from betty crocker a while back for an "impossibly easy french apple pie", at the end of the directions it said you could sub in 3 pears for the 3 apples. PERFECT!

I got straight to baking and crossed my fingers that it wouldn't turn out yucky since I was using such ripe pears.

Here you have it after cooling for about an hour.

I had to taste it first to make sure it was good. Well, it was delicious!!

The pears are perfect and I love it! On the plus side, I don't think it is to fattening since there are only 3 tablespoons of butter and I used non-fat milk instead of regular milk.

Filling:

3 cups sliced pears (3 pears)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 cup bisquick mix

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup milk (I used non-fat)

1 tablespoon butter, softened

2 eggs

Streusel:

1/2 cup bisquick mix

1/4 cup chopped nuts (I probably used a little less then 1/2 cup)

1/4 cup packed brown sugar (I didn't have brown sugar so I subbed in granulated sugar and used a little over 1/4 cup)

2 tablespoons firm butter

Execution:

1. Heat oven to 325. Grease a 9-inch pie plate. In medium bowl, mix pears, cinnamon and nutmeg: place in pie plate.

2. In medium bowl (I used the same one as the pears), stir remaining filling ingredients until blended. Pour over pear mixture in pie plate. In small bowl, mix streusel ingredients until crumbly; sprinkle over filling.

3. Bake 40-45 minutes or until knife inserted come out clean. Cool 5 minutes. Store in refrigerator.

Get ready for deliciousness! I was pleasantly surprised and happy about the turn out.

YEAH!!

Ready for the arms to hurt!

Today we did an all arm workout. Grab some bands and do:

2 sets of 20:
bicep curls
standing rows (bent at waist and squeeze shoulder blades together)
arms straight out to the side
tricep extensions
shoulder press

In between each moves (i.e bicep curls and standing rows) do some sort of cardio (high knees, butt kickers, run in place, etc.).

Then do 2 sets of 10 for all of the above.

When I got home I added in 2 sets of 20 push ups and shoulder push ups (bent at waist with hands on floor and go down like a push up but your booty is sticking up in the air).

Yeah for sore arms... but maybe they will be toned some day soon!

Boot Camp...

Tuesday was an ab day at boot camp. Here was the drill.

Warm up with high knees, butt kickers and jumping jacks.

There were stations set up that went like this:
1. superman (on tummy like flying)
2. jump rope
3. boat (on back hands and feet off the ground at a 45 degree angle)
4. jump rope
5. swimmers (just like super man except now you kick your legs and move your arms like your swimming)
6. jump rope
7. lay on back and bring knees to chest then straight out about 6 inches of the ground
8. jump rope
9. right side plank
10. jump rope
11. left side plank
12. on hands and knees, lift right arm and left leg straight out in front then switch
13. standing, lift right knee to left elbow then switch
14. stand with feet shoulder width apart then bend at waist and put hands on floor. Walk hands out until you can go into push up form. Walk hands back then stand up straight again.
15. crunches
16. reverse crunches (lay on tummy hands behind head and lift)

We did it one time for 1 minute per station then when through a second time 30 seconds per station.

Today was a cardio day!

We ran a lot but in between running we did 30 lunges, 10 wide arm push ups, 4 count crunches (go up in stages 1,2,3,4. When you hit four it should be as high up as you can get in your crunch), 30 knee to chest, 1 minute plank. We repeated all of this twice.

Basically it was a lot of running with a little muscle work during our "break".

Balloon Release Pictures

For Abigayl's birthday we had a small BBQ with some friends where we released 130 balloons to represent her 130 days she blessed us on this Earth.

I blogged her birthday celebration here along with the beautiful decorations at her memorial site.

Our friend, Shaun, was wonderful enough to take all the pictures of the balloon release. Prepare for a lot of pictures! He has done a beautiful job and I am so pleased to be able to share them with all of you. What I put in the blog is only a fraction of the pictures he took during the balloon release.

Parker enjoying the yummy cookies that his mom, Katie, and our friend Jill brought over for Abigayl's birthday. They were beautiful butterfly cookies and there were 12 of them. I'm not sure if it was intentional or unintentional, but Rusty pointed out to me that there were 12 cookies, and that there are 12 months in a year, and that Abigayl was 1 year old. I thought that was pretty neat.

Here is Issac enjoying his butterfly cookie.

And here is Kayla.

All 130 balloons... ready to launch.

It was quite windy that day. All of the strings got tangled when we took them out in a bunch like this. So......

We took them back in the garage and untangled all the strings with the help and patients of our lovely friends.

Can you believe how many? They were so beautiful. (ignore the messy garage)

Releasing a few to see which way the wind was blowing and where they would fly to. After the first few were released we decided to move to the back yard for the rest since there are so many trees in the front.

It was beautiful watching them float up to her.

Jill, Kayla, Katie, Chandler, Tom, Parker, Rusty and I all letting our balloons go.

Tom, Parker and Chandler.

I love this shot. Katie releasing balloons.

Chandler turned 1 a week and a half before Abigayl. It was really neat to get to watch him participate and see his reactions. That way, I know how Abigayl is feeling in Heaven watching all her balloons float up to her. Chandler really enjoyed letting his balloons go.

For a lot of these next shots it would probably be better to click on them to enlarge the pictures so you can have the full effect. I think they are magnificent. In some of them you feel like your actually floating in the clouds with them.

I really love this one.

Isn't she so adorable?!

Jill and Parker

I love how much fun the kids had. Kayla even told me this was the best birthday party ever!

(Parker, Kayla, Issac and Chandler)

Even though it was a really hard day, it was nice to be able to celebrate with people we care about and are so grateful to have in our lives. It was nice to be able to smile during such a hard day. We miss Abigayl so much and we love to celebrate her every day. It was fantastic to get to do something special for her and her special day.

No Boot Camp... Too Yucky

I am really bummed that I ended up getting sick over the weekend. What I thought was allergies turned out to be sickness. I am debating on whether or not to call the doc but I figure I'll wait it out a couple more days to see if it starts getting better or worse.

Needless to say, boot camp was skipped this morning. I really hate missing since I only get so few days but I figure being able to breath may be a good idea!

Hopefully tomorrow will be my day.

Lovin' the weather even though I'm not 100%

After attending a birthday party for one of the sweet boys I get to watch every now and then, our friends, the Smith's, came over for some water playing.

It was so much fun getting to go down the water slide and watch their boys go down the water slide. Mr. P (who is 3) was so brave and went down on his tummy, his dad flung him down the slide and on his booty. He is so stinkin' cute! Mr. C (who is 1) even went down the big slide by himself! He is brave too. I think he really wants to do everything his brother does!

Us adults had a blast to. Everyone except Rusty went down the slide. Rusty said when it is 90 and there is no wind he will go. But, tonight was only in the low 80's and there was a pretty good breeze going on.

We had fun and I'm looking forward to doing it many times this summer!