A new workout buddy

For the past 4 months my workout routine has changed dramatically.

1-I noticed that getting up at 4 to meet my group at 4:30 was not in mine or my family's best interest. Those ladies live far away from their work and fortuantely I live one block away. I was getting home, and basically mulling around, trying to be quiet until I needed to wake my family up. I was also super tired by 4:00 and the nightime was awful as I couldn't wait to go to bed. Now, I don't set an alarm and most of the time I still wake up at 4:45, start my workout by 5 and finish by 6, which is about 15 minutes before anyone in our home starts stirring. I greet the kids with a homemade breakfast and we are at work/school by 7:30 easy.

2-I have a smaller workout buddy. Goober has been coming with me every other day. This means that even if I wake up in time to meet my group I don't. This also means that I stopped going to CrossFit. I honestly wasn't that sad. I still do the WOD everyday, I just look it up on their website. But now I wake up, grab Goober and we head to the school weight room. He and I modify my WOD for him, crank up the tunes, put on our weight glvoes and lift hard anywhere from 10-20 minutes depending on the WOD. He loves it and makes sure I know every night that he wants to go with me. After that I normally run 3-5 miles around our block and the school. We use our headlamps and he always stops and rest in the lit porch areas on campus while I do a lap or two and swing by to grab him. Sometimes I run him back to our house and he rests on the porch until I run home.

3-These changes were absolutely necessary. One-at CrossFit the amount of cussing and awful songs that I was exposed to was crazy...and it was starting to make me want to cuss more and more and I had those awful lyrics in my head all day. Now, they are the nicest people and so encouraging but as a Christian it just felt wrong....they knew where I stood but it was another temptation that I don't need.
Two-Goobers behavior was getting out of hand, so much so that one morning at 5 I thought our world was about to change. That morning instead of racing to the nearest therapist or calling our adoption agency I made him put on clothes and run beside me until he started talking. That has worked ever since. I have learned all about 5/6th grade boys at our school, the latest dance moves, what he thinks about every person on his baseball team and where he would play them, I have learned about his big boat project in math, I have learned which teachers he reallys likes, which ones he won't miss, all about the spy book he just finished and how "since I won't ever be the tallest in my class I want to be the strongest". He is even asking me questions (WOW), like, "are you excited for the date you and dad are going on?" and Easter morning this sentence actually come out of his mouth, voluntarily "Mom, I would love to make breakfast so that you can get a shower first so the water is hot".

This has become "our time", the babies are not invited and we have our "running route". My girlfriend, without even knowing about our ordeal with Goober confirmed this to me as she went to a homeschooling conference and heard over and over "mothers, if you want to bond with your sons you have to get active".... In other words don't expect them to spill the beans over the dinner you cooked or over getting your nails done.

Early Easter service at church. HE IS RISEN!

My cutting helper!!

Cutting tomatoes for dinner!

He always adds up his reps..and mine :)

I definitely snuck around the corner and caught this sweet moment of big brother reading to the littles!

I did the 16.5 CrossFit open. It was for time and my goal for myself was 20 after hearing how long it took others when they did it the day before.
It was 21 burpees, 21 thrusters with 50 lbs, then 18 burpees, 18 thrusters..you get it...for a total of 84 of each.
A thruster is where you bring the bar up to your chin like a hang clean and then do a front squat, as you come up from the squat you press the bar above your head.
I was sweating and breating super fast but when I saw my time I was thrilled. 

Easter bunny pancakes for the kiddos on Easter. These are a favorite made with coconut flour, almond flour, arrowroot, bananas, eggs, cinnamon, vanilla, almond milk and dark chocolate chips. I finally figured out how to make them thick like buttermilk pancakes too....1/3 cup of water. The kids asked for these again today!

Look who led worship at our church for Easter. SHANE AND SHANE....I have been their biggest fan since seeing them several times in college. I really built them up to Goober and he and I raced to get our picture with one of them right after the service. 

The Easter bunny came later on that afternoon. He brought their yearly "about me" books, some games, weight gloves, running shoes, furry boots and Hubba Bubba gum!

Running fast at one of the many egg hunts we had. 

Egg Hunt on the big kid playground at school

Hunting Eggs with church friends.

These two are great playmates!

Look mom, an egg shaped like a carrot!

At the egg hunt right after our Easter Race!

He said "these eggs are not hiding"

Some more set pieces that are finally finished. These arches are "old" on the other side and the curtains will look messy. This is the "new" Gaiety Theater side...still have to add some gold ribbon.

6 of the 9 of us who came to a painting party I led. I love our Sunday School class! Check out my students etchings that are drying in the background on the clothesline!

Ribbit and I chose to run the 1 mile Eggstravaganza race this past weekend. We were gifted matching outfits by another one of our friends who wanted to run with us but couldn't. We were cold to begin with but after I carried her for 1/3 of the mile we were both warm. :)

Our goal was to finish in 15 minutes and we made it in right after 14. We both got ribbons and she said " this is more fun than I thought it would be". As you can see Goober is just ready to get to his baseball game. 

Hanging out after the race. They ate my "post-run" bananas for me!

Another set piece, this is the Gaiety theater facade in Old West Nevada. 

We were proud of our CrossFit workout and 3 miles before 6 am one morning!

You can see my WOD in large letters and Goober's WOD in his little handwriting. This day we went for 10 mins to see how many rounds we could get in. He LOVES to do the benchpress :), must be a guy thing!

Adam took this picture of me up on the lift painting. This was "safe" painting...I had just climbed on top of that balcony, using the lift as a balance, while holding out a paintbrush taped to a ruler. I have to admit that I am not scared of heights but these sets are on wheels and I get a little shaky!

He also snuck this picture of me. He said he walked past my classroom and though "what in the world". Well, this is how I teach gesture drawing. I stand in ridiculous poses and countdown from 20, 15 or 10 seconds and force my students to captures the movement and learn to trust thier hand/eye coordination. They get soooo into it and it gets pretty loud!!!