Happy Father's Day

I just want to say a special happy father's day to my amazing, wonderful, loving, caring and handsome husband. He is the best husband and father I know.

We have had a year of many losses, but the one that hurt the most was losing Abigayl. He has been my shoulder to cry on and an absolute support for me. I just hope that on this father's day he can be filled with wonderful memories of her and love for the baby that is to grace us some time in February.

Right now I am 6 weeks pregnant. We went to an ultra sound appointment on Thursday and though we were not able to make out much, we were able to see a little flutter that the nurse thought was a heart beat. We were not able to hear anything since the baby was much to small but we will go back in two weeks for another ultra sound!

We are very excited and very certain that this time God is ready for us to be parents to another wonderful child. We just ask that you keep us in your prayers as we wait out the next two weeks. Our faith is 100% in the the Lord and that he will always do what is best for us.

So, today is filled with joy but also sorrow for my wonderful husband. He is the greatest man I know and I hope that your prayers are with him and all of the other fathers out there that have to go through this same pain on a day like today.

Project WET

I spent my evening Friday (2-9) and my day Saturday (9-5) at a class/seminar entitled Project WET (water education for teachers). I took the class because I am in the process of trying to achieve alternative certification so that I can become a teacher.

I already have a BS in Biology but I did not work in that field of study after graduation. So, I needed post bachelor work to get around that prerequisite. I took this class at my Alma Mater NSU-BA but from what I gather you can complete this in a 6 hour seminar for non-credit in other places, I'm just not sure where.

I am so glad that this is the class I chose to take. I had so much fun and it goes along well with what I want to do in the classroom. In this book there are tons of ways (in all subject areas, not just science and all grades) to teach kids important lessons about water and its importance.

So, if you are a teacher, home school teacher, youth leader or a parent that wants neat ways to interact with your kids, I suggest you look in to one of these seminars. They not only have water education but they have others like: project learning tree (forestry), project wild (animals and their surroundings), project wild aquatic (aquatic animals and their surroundings) and I think there are many others.

You ready for sore legs?!

Today there were 7 cones set up. There were 4 in a square (about 15-20 feet apart) and the other 3 were in the center of the square.

We did each cone/station for one minute, 2 times through the stations.
1. frog jump (squat, touch the ground and jump forward then turn around)
2. side frog jump (squat, touch the ground, jump to the side) each direction
3. frog jump
4. side frog jump
(on 1-4 we did each movement to the cone in front of us then turned around and came back to our start cone. We repeated this for the full 1 minute.)
5 and 6 were led by 7 (the resting cone/station). Things we did in 5 and 6 were: jumping jacks, left and right shuffle, high knees, butt kickers, mountain climbers, etc. (basically anything cardio!).

After that we worked some abs: 20 crunches w/ knees in the air, 10 full sit-ups, 45 second flutter kicks (shoulders and feet off the ground and kick legs), 20 toe touches (legs straight in air and crunch up to touch toes).

I hear tomorrow we are doing A LOT of running! woo hoo.

4 Years...

Four years ago today Rusty and I were married at the Victoria Inn Bed and Breakfast in Laffitte, Louisiana (about 20 minutes from New Orleans).

On that day, the only stress I had was the huge storm that had blown in! There were no life losses and roller coaster rides that I had to deal with. Just the pure bliss of knowing I was becoming Mrs. Stamper! Thankfully, that storm blew through and we were still able to wed outside surrounded by the beautiful gardens.

In our four years, we have definitely been on a roller coaster. Marriage isn't always easy but if you make the choice to choose love and happiness and work through the hard times... the end result is pure love and admiration for one another.

I love my husband so much. I am thankful every day that God put him in my life as my husband. I am the lucky one.

ready to go!

handsome groom!

making my way to the man of my dreams

Mr. and Mrs. Stamper

strike a pose

There was a pesky fly....

That continuously landed on Rusty's face.....

It just couldn't take the hint that we were busy!! But, it was pretty darn funny.

Rusty surprised me by giving me a wedding band. We had planned on using my ring as the engagement and wedding ring since it had so many diamonds. But, when he slipped the ring on my finger it was a beautiful diamond wedding band!!! It was pretty great.

The food was AMAZING!! I would go do it all over again for the food....

and the cake! The cake was out of this world delicious.

So in love (and still are... maybe even more now!)

I am so proud to be Mrs. Rusty Stamper.

Rusty has made my dreams come true. He has given me his love and patients and one of the best things he has given me is my beautiful daughter. I am looking forward to many more years and children with him.

I love you honey. You are my everything and I am so thankful that you are my soul mate.

Welcome baby Jude

I just wanted to congratulate my friend Carrie on the birth of her BEAUTIFUL son Jude. He was born last night at 11pm and is so precious.

Check out Carrie's blog here and the memorial site for their sweet angel, Lila, here.

This is a very exciting time for the Bower family and I just ask that you keep them in your prayers as they start a new chapter in their lives.

Stations

Today was similar to June 10th work out except it included arms, legs, abs and cardio.

Once again there were stations set up and we were at each station for 1 minute. Once we went through each station once, we went through again this time for 30 seconds per station.

The stations looked like this:

1. superman
2. jump rope
3. boat
4. jump rope
5. aquaman
6. mountain climbers
7. right plank
8. squat/jump
9. left plank
10. jump rope
11. deep squat
12. plies squat
13. lunges
14. push ups
15. t-push up (push up then go into side plank; switch off sides)
16. tricep dippers
17. fire hydrant (hands and knees; lift leg like peeing)
18. fire hydrant kicks (hands and knees; lift leg and keep lifted while you kick out 10x per side then do it again)
19. butt burners (hands and knees; lift bent leg off ground and pulse behind you)

Make sure you warm up and stretch before and after the work out!

Skipper II

I went to bed late last night and felt like getting up at 4:50am just wasn't in the cards. So, instead I spent 30 minutes on the elliptical machine this morning and I am planning on doing some push-ups, squats, lunges and other full body work in the evening.

Although I didn't go to boot camp I still managed to get a good, sweaty workout in!


**edit**
I ended up going on a 30 minute bike ride (that included some hills) instead of push-ups, lunges, etc. So, I put in 1 hour of cardio... I think that is pretty sufficient!