Somewhere Along The Way

a family celebration

We celebrated Julian's 8th birthday and my sister's 39th birthday this past Saturday with our whole family.  It was a fabulous afternoon.  We had:  Auntie Katherine, Uncle Jim, Auntie Diane, Auntie Fran and Uncle Bruce, Nana and Pop Pop, Delia, our friend and sitter, Uncle Paul, Auntie Bonnie, Bashi, Cousin Alyssa, Gary and newest little cousin by marriage, Maxwell.  A full full house.

There were lots of presents and great cake.  One from the Mad Hatter in Newport and one from the Cake Lady in New London.

We were so super proud of Julian.  He opened each gift, read each card aloud and thanked each person with a hug and a kiss. 

 

 

 

Here is Julian's excitement after seeing he got the game RISK from Auntie Diane!

 

 

Three cheers for Auntie Diane and Julian!

Tyler looks on as Julian opens his gifts.

and our eager reader taking time to read all the cards.  Sweet sweet sweet.

(and Mom and Dad didn't say a word, he did this all on his own)

Katherine is looking and feeling great !  She is 17 weeks pregnant here! Yay!

 

 

First Reconciliation, and an afternoon ride

What a milestone for our 7 year old son.  He made his first reconciliation.  A Catholic Sacrament that comes after Baptism and in our case before he makes his First Holy Communion in May.  He did so well.  He was nervous Saturday morning, but had his act of contrition memorized.  We got to the church around noon and I had an extra copy of the prayer in my pocket.  The head of the religious program came by and gave everyone a very nice copy on parchment.  Tyler looked up and said "Mom where's mine?".  So I gave him the copy I had. 

When the priest, Fr. Converse, called the children over in a group, I had to hold Tyler back.  I told him he needed to sit with his Mom and Dad.  He looked up at me and said "but I have my copy".  Too cute.  He didn't want to be left out.

It took Julian all of 60 seconds to confess his sins and another minute to recite the Our Father as his penance.

We took the boys to Fireside pizza in Gales Ferry for lunch and by the way, they have fabulous salads. 

Since we were on the other side of town Bill asked me if I wanted to go see the Yale and Harvard boathouses.  Very surprising how quaint the village is surrounding the boathouse.  Here's a bit of history and my images.

"There is a complex of buildings owned by Yale University which serve as a training camp for the Yale Heavyweight Men's Crew for the Yale-Harvard Boat Race. The complex consists of the Varsity House, Manager's House and the Boathouse. The oldest structure on the site is the front portion of the varsity house which was originally constructed in the late eighteenth century as a private home and which has since been considerably expanded by multiple additions. The boathouse was designed by James Gamble Rogers who was also responsible for much of the gothic revival architecture at Yale's New Haven campus.

The boathouse adjoining the dock serves as a center of activity when the camp is occupied and provides storage and repair space for the boats. Freshman oarsmen are also quartered in the second floor of the boathouse. Upperclassmen, including all of the rowers in the varsity and junior varsity boats, are quartered in the top floor of the varsity house. Women on the team, if there are any serving as coxswains, are housed either in the front wing of the varsity quarters or in the manager's house. The varsity house also contains several common spaces including a game room, a central common room and the dining room as well as bathrooms and the kitchen.

Yale's Crew is the oldest college athletic team in America. The complex's buildings are filled with memorabilia and artifacts from the team's history. This is a living history however, because of continuing use and occupation that bring the camp to life every year for the race. As the center of Yale Crew's institutional memory and the annual home of the longest running rivalry in American college sports the Ferry serves as an important site in the history of sports."

And there you have it ! A little religion and a little history!

 

Cheryl

This is Cheryl.

She is my friend and personal trainer.  I have been exercising with her for almost five years and training with her for about a year. 

She is kind, honest, and sweet.  She is also an incredibly gifted trainer who can make you hurt like no ones business.  Her daily demeanor is pretty tough, but once you get to know her you understand that she has the biggest heart in the world.  She has seen me through weight loss and weight gain. 

She is an ovarian cancer survivor. 

She completed a 1/2 Ironman for her 50th birthday in 2011.  She is STRONG.

As of today she told me that it is absolutely her mission to make me fit, thin and strong.  I can't let her down this time.  I made so many strides over a year ago, only to eat my way back to being overweight. 

I know that I have to do this for me and I want to, but I think if she puts the pressure on it will help.  It definitely will.  She's so funny.  She knows me so well.  I knew a lecture was coming.  Her lectures bring me to tears really.  She reminds me that I work so very hard, why do I waste it on food.  Last week I preempted a lecture by telling her I got my butt back in WW.  I told her I knew a lecture was coming.

She reminds me often that exercise, suffering and pain is all mental.  The mind will quit before the body quits.  It's true.  We can push ourselves to limits we didn't think we had.  Today she had me climbing at a 15% incline on the treadmill, at a speed that I thought would literally kill me.  She gave me a small break at 4 minutes in then we repeated this 4 times, every 15 min.  The rest of the workout included tons of high reps.  50 squats with medicine x 3.  Abs for 3 min x 3.  Arms and Shoulders x 3.  I was trashed as I usually am.  I need to remind myself when I want to go eat that cookie that she is always watching.  She notices everything ! 

Even today she asked me if I was sore from Boot camp last Saturday.  Truthfully I was sore from our previous meeting last Thursday and I was taking it a little easy on Saturday.  Asking me if I was sore was her way of letting me know she knew I was taking it easy.  So there's no getting away with anything less than max-effort with Cheryl. 

So I will be sore, and tired, and exhausted after each meeting with her, but that's how it should be.  One thing is for sure I've never been so strong since meeting this wonder woman.

a birthday celebration, ww, and a yummy smoothie recipe

Sunday we celebrated my father's 68th birthday.  It was also the two year anniversary of his big prostate cancer surgery.  Way to go Dad ! Still exercising, still skiing and having fun.  We travelled to my parent's home in Newport.  The party included all of our loved ones, my aunties, uncle bruce, Jim and Katherine, Bill and our kids.  Tyler and Julian had such a nice time.  Uncle Bruce plays with them all afternoon.  As we were leaving to go home Tyler pulled me aside and said Mommy this was the best day of my whole life.  I got to play with our family all day.

Katherine looks great !  She's just entered her second trimester!  She feels wonderful and looks wonderful.

And above is her first scan!  All is well.  Thank God !

On starting over, which will forever be my mantra.  I'm finally getting back into my training schedule and getting my behind back to weight watchers meetings.  Why? Because like the ad says "It Works" and it's always worked for me.  So down 3.8 pounds this week! Woo hoo!  Last week's training Feb 12-18th looked like this:

Mon: run 3 miles

Tues: spin 45 min, run 3 miles

Wed: run 3 miles

Thurs: personal training with Cheryl 60 min

Friday: 45 spin, 30 arms and abs

Saturday: bootcamp outside with Cheryl.

This week so far:

Sunday : Rest day

Monday: run 30 min

Tuesday: spin 45, run 30 minutes, swim 20 minutes

Wednesday: run River road 30 min

Tomorrow - Thurs: hour with Cheryl

Friday - spin, arms and abs.

WW was great.  We talked about stress, learned some tools about managing stress.  I have perfected what I call "checking out".  Much too often I can look at a day, or an event or going out to dinner and just throwing every thing I know about what's good for me right out the window.  I can overeat at the drop of a hat.  Too many times I let the guilt of one meal give me an excuse to eat all day, to start over the next day or the next week and continue the bad behavior.  As my trainer likes to point out, why ruin all your hard work at the gym with bad food choices.  

Today's after meeting treat - a guilt free Pina Colada ! (4 points plus)

1 pkg. WW coconut smoothie

1 c. almond milk

1 c. crushed ice

1/2 c. crushed pineapple

blend

garnish with nutmeg !

 

 

Getting back to basics! Yes, scrapbooking

(Mrs. Heather, working on her projects in our basement!)

I had an epiphany at the Snowflake crop in Sturbridge last month.  Why am I not utilizing the space in the basement to have the girls over for scrap-booking?  Lots of room, well lit.  I decided at Sturbridge to put a day on the calendar.  So yesterday Heather and Ashley came over with their gear and we got to work.  Unfortunately Sara had a tummy bug and couldn't make it.  ( I swear the world is sometimes conspiring against us, every time we make a date something always comes up).

So we had lots of snacks, and called out for pizza, and did what we love to do.  Play with our paper, our photos and talk.  I worked from 3:30pm to 10 pm and worked on summer 2009 photos from Montauk.  Ashley worked on her engagement party photos and Heather, the crafty powerhouse that she is, was working on presents for friends.

Also, got two great packages this weekend! One was a blog to print book.  This blog printed.  (Sadly I can't believe I have almost two years missing, but this book is 400 pages!) I have 400 pages of our life in photos and memories printed in a hardcover book.  It's wonderful.  So many things recorded that I have forgotten all about.

Second package was a set of beautiful vintage scrap-booking papers for my next project our vacation album.  The papers are from Graphic 45. Gorgeous.

In other weekend news, I returned to boot-camp yesterday morning with my fabulous trainer Cheryl and her great gang of followers.  The weather turned out really nice.  I'm still being cautious with my foot.  (still healing from a terrible bout of plantar fasciitis). 

Everyone in this house is coughing or blowing their nose and we're supposed to head to my parents this afternoon for my father's birthday.  We'll see how it goes.

This was from our last day on Block Island 2010. Just a fav of the boys standing on the porch of the National after breakfast.

Never underestimate how much children understand.

My sons really steal my heart.

Tyler: Thanks for making me feel better Mom.
Me: How did I do that Tyler?
Tyler: By hugging me, and holding me today....that's caring Mom.

Goodness, gracious.

Happy Valentine's Day 2012

Here they are, my valentines who woke up to hearts of Whitmans chocolates and cards from Momma and Daddy. I think we surprised them.

After a wonderful pre-valentine dinner at Olio's with Jillian and Bruce and Bill I had to get up at 5am to meet my gym buddy and friend Nancy for spin and a run. Ow!

So now a coffee, a shower, errands and prepare a Valentine for my hubby.

End of the Week

A birthday party for Auntie Bonnie's grandson and our last home meet of the season at the Mystic Y. That was our weekend!

Waves

The sound of the waves here is so all you can hear. Wonderful.