Run, run, run (4 miles)

I did it this Friday inspite of the fact that I had a sore throat and not much desire or energy to hit the gym. I wanted to do it though not only because it was on my training plan for Friday to run 4 miles, but because knew that I would have a great sense of accomplishment afterward. So went ahead and "checked" myself into the gym and got on that treadmill.  It was a big deal for me. Once I got past the 3 mile "milestone", I knew I could finish. I never before ran this much and it was amazing! Hard, but amazing.  My average speed was 5.5-6.5 running only, no walking.
It's difficult  to put words to how exercise makes me feel but I know for a fact that along with the common benefits of overall health, strength, and flexibility, it gives me the courage, confidence, and determination to accomplish more and more every day, and not only in the physical realm. What I once perceived as difficult or challenging tasks at work or at home, now I welcome and feel grateful for. It's a wonderful thing, a huge transformation in my life. And because it's so wonderful I just can't stop talking about it. :) What were once foreign objects that I wanted nothing to do with, are now good friends (i.e. barbells, dumb bells, heavy ball, core ball, bosu and medical balls, push carts, cables, elastic bands, iron grips, etc.)
For me to also know that I can motivate others while I'm doing what I'm doing to keep my own motivation up, is both humbling and inspiring. And because it's no fun doing this all by myself, I created a little Facebook group, "Friends in Training" in hopes to create a community of us out there working towards the same goals of living a healthier and happier life through good nutrition and physical exercise. To keep another one another motivated and accountable so we may all reach our goals. I hope everyone has as much fun out there, as I do.

Back to my first 4 mile run: I was exctatic, proud and happy, and sweaty too. After the run I went into one of the group fitness studios and did some nice stretching and couldn't help but snap some pictures. :) I do like my new "me" a lot, as "it" stand a little taller and straighter, more confident, happier, and stronger. :-)


Big smile right there on my face!

I'm pumped up about reaching my next weight (fat) loss goal and my 10K run in a few weeks. Then hopefully the Alpha Showdown and the next tri. The possibilities are almost endless, that's for sure.

And for all this, I thank Him every day, and my amazing Hrishi and Ella, and my trainer John Lee who believed in me a year ago and gave me the wings to fly higher than I ever thought possible.

The good life

This week Hrishi had to travel to Omaha again for work. He was really needed there and will still be needed back there in November. We managed well although we missed him dearly. With me having to take on all of the household chores, including everything that goes with taking care of Ella, I gained a deeper appreciation for all the help that I get when he's around. And even more respect and admiration for you mothers of many children out there, or single mothers, or just very busy women!!

Althought it was busy, I was able to reflect at the end of each day on how blessed I am and feel for all the work that is mine to do: the work of a mother, the work of a wife, the work of a  woman in the church, the work of an analyst, the work of person passionate about fitness, etc. Because only through work we grow and shine, and reach whatever destination we set out to. And work makes life good, doesn't it?

And here is some of the things that make my life good, in fact great and wonderful:

(Ok, this really deserves a caption as there is a pretty cute story behind it: Ella comes home with this cute bunch of little dalmatians. I ask her where she got them from. She tells me she traded them with a friend. I ask her what she traded them for, she said "nothing." I'm a little perplexed and I ask if she had to return this to her friend. She said, "why, of course! I have to retun them on Monday." I thought it was very funny and I'm glad that I get to play with them too, until Monday! :-))

My very handsome man.

Today I got to volunteer and get my hands dirty with pumpkin along side this lovely bunch! I'm getting to love some of these kids and Ms. Brininstool, they wonderful teacher!

Today in honor of the Red Ribbon week, everyone dressed-up in Western attire! It was such a treat to see everyone's outfits (including teachers, staff, and principal!)

I'll make a conscious effort to be better at treasuring every moment because it is there, in the small, daily details that we get to experience life at its best. And trying to find the extraordinary in the ordinary day makes (my) heart happy.

"Nutcracker" fever

It started and we love it! Last Saturday, after the food drive and a quick lunch we headed to Ella's first rehearsal. She loved it. They also did the first costume fitting. These cherubs are simply adorable!

There's hardly anything sweeter and more inspiring to me than seeing them work so hard every class period, help each other out, and build friendships as only little girls can.
And because she loves it so much there at the Ballet Conservatory and the Halloween sleepover sounded so fun, Ella went back for a few hours of play and dancing in her Halloween costume. This was her first sleepover ever. Well, it was more of a "stayover" than sleepover since we picked up after our movie.

Finally...

Although generally speaking, I don't consider myself a procrastinator, I do have a couple of things here and there that I just don't seem to get motivated enough to get done: pantry organization!!! Well, tonight after many days of deliberate planning and pathetic failure to get to it, I managed to finally do it. I started small, thinking that I'd only do the bottom shelf. I got more excited as I started to see the clutter go away and decided to go up another shelf, and then another, and then another until I got to the top! So it's done, cleaned and organized! My husband will be so proud of me. :-) And I feel better about myself too! :-)

Nope, I didn't take "before" pictures, believe you would have not wanted to see those. But here is the finished/"after" product:

It's not perfect but it doesn't really have to be. It's much better than it was before, that's for sure! And that's what we strive for around here. :)

Fun craft

Isn't this just lovely?

Family Fall craft/homework. It was such a fun project. Ella made the jack-o-latern eyes, mouth, nose, decorated and wrote her name on the label, drew and cut off the leaves and the stem. Daddy put it all together, while I painted the paper bag and gave a lot of instructions...!!! :)

I love fall!

Food

Do you wonder how many of Heavenly Father's children are hungry at this very moment? Hungry for basic food or thirsty for clean safe water? While I don't know that number, I'm sure there are very very many. And while many or most of them live outside of United States, maybe in third world or developing countries, there are many of them who live amongst us here, at home.

The counsel from the Savior Himself to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, or visit the sick always echoed with me in a very special and powerful way, a way that pushed me to take some sort of action.

Can you imagine having a child coming home from school and not having food to offer to him or her?  Or before they go to bed, or when they wake up in the morning? Can you? I can't... yet there are so many of our Heavenly Father's children out there who do have to go through this every day.

On Saturday, our ward and stake participated in a large "Close the Gap" project for the Food Bank of North Texas. We started our project with watching this video last Monday for FHE. The video shows the unseen face of hunger here in North Texas. Very touching. It moved me and I'm so happy that I could share it with Ella and Hrishi and they were moved too. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday nights we walked around our neighborhood on our assigned streets, and distributed flyers for the food drive. It is very hard to describe the joy and great spirit I felt as I got to do this with my sweet helper, Ella, since Hrishi was out of town. He however cheered our efforts. :) Her excitement and desire to tell our neighbors about the project was simply inspiring. We then prayed every night for the Lord to soften the hearts of our neighbors so they would have a desire to share a little bit from what they had with those who didn't have any.  Saturday morning came and we gathered in the parking lot of our grocery store to kick off the food drive. After the bishop shared a few thoughts, we went about the neighborhood hopeful to collect our cans. To our disappointment (especially Ella's), we did not find any cans by the doors where we left flyers at. But I was able to use this opportunity to teach about understanding and not judging others, while we, ourselves, should always always do our part, and share a little bit from the little bit or the whole lot we have, whichever one it is.

We went back to the parking lot with our cans and dropped them off in the collection box. We were happily surprised to see that many others shoppers have dropped off lots of goodies in the box. See Ella's smile at this discovery?

We took advantage of the amazingly beautiful weather and stoped by the park on our way back. It was a perfect day, couldn't have asked for more.

Today I was so so happy to read in our ward email that we met our goal of 3,000 pounds of food.  That makes about 3,600 meals for the needy. Hurray! I can't wait to share this great news with Ella and Hrishi.

I remember our bishop's words that we should not wait for experts to solve this world's problems, that each and every one of us can do much by serving those around us in simple, yet meaningful ways.

I am so grateful for the many way we can give and share of ourselves with others.

Halloween Past

I've been wanting to do this post for a long time now... as it turns out I've lost or misplaced quite a few pictures from our first and second Halloween with Ella (trunk-o-treats and such), but this is what I dug up so far:

2006

2007

We're missing the "Lady Bug" year...2008!!

 

2009

2010

The every day stuff

I usually write about weekend happenings, things we did, places we went, etc. But I tend to forget the small and simple, the every day stuff. Why? Maybe because I think it's so "every day-ish" and maybe not as important or interesting. I recently realized though that when I go back and read old journals or blog entries from the past, those little every day details are the ones that catch my eye and amuse me the most. So here's to the ordinary, every day stuff!

-We love to crank up our radio when they play these (of course we're editing some of the lyrics, when needed:) And we dance in our seats to our heart's content!

OneRepublic's "Good Life" (that's our family song)
Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks
Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera's "Moves Like Jagger"
David Guetta and Usher - "Without You"
-We love to eat steamed broccoli almost every day, baked sweet potatoe fries, grilled chicken, and fish. Our favorite desserts are apple pie, soy ice cream, and marble cake (and no, we don't eat all three as one dessert. LOL! :)) We love brownies too! Oh, and our grab-n-go store food is Kroger's rotisserie chicken.

-We have movie night almost every Friday night.

-We love bubble baths (especially Ella and she asks almost every night for a "high" bath which means that we almost fill up the tub)

-We read every night and tell our stories from the day.

-We have family prayer every night and every morning.

-We read Book of Mormon/New Testament or Old Testament stories almost every night.

-We love to go to the neighborhood park, which is only 2 mins walk away from our house.  Because of the short distance, we claim it as our "personal" park. :-)
-Can't think of anymore right now...but there's so much more, I'm sure.

Happy Birthday, Ella Bella!!!

This Sunday our little sweetheart turned the BIG 6!!!! Needless to say that we started the celebration on Friday after school and partied the weekend away!! :) We did a lot of good stuff.

On Friday we went to Sea Life for another tour of the beautiful acquarium. If you have one close-by or ever happen to visit a place that does, it is so worth it! Or if you happen to be close-by Sea World, go for it! (we were going to go there this year but plans changed.) Anyway, it was a delight to watch all the beautiful sea creatures swim, crawl, or float. They even have a shark walk, an interactive rock pool, and awesome ocean themed background music.

We then grabbed some to-go from Hard Eight BBQ, our favorite barbeque place.

On Saturday morning we did the FAAN  (Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network) Walk which is a great fund raiser event to support food allergies awareness and research. I can't tell you how nice it felt to be around folks like us who struggle with food allergies day in and day out. It was comforting and reassuring. I felt a spirit of hope in the air, a hope for so much needed research breakthroughs in this field. And I know that everyone present there felt the same. It is just something so special and unifying about being part of a cause and food allergies is OUR CAUSE. And when I told Ella that in a couple of weeks we have an appointment with a doctor that is using a different approach to try to desensitize the body of allergens, her face literally lit up. Great hopes and prayers going up for her and all those like her.

The walk was in a wonderful neighborhood equipped with a pretty cool park which of course was the number one attraction for all the kids after the walk!



After the walk, we came home, grabbed some lunch, and headed out again to Ray Roberts Lake, a beautiful state park about an hour away built around a very large lake. We had a great time there, trying our hand at fishing and just hanging out together.



"Fishie, fishie, fishie!!"

And a little photoshoot...:

And finally, the actual birthday on Sunday!! Sweetie pie dressed-up in her princess dress (which is a party dress she managed to get sweet Maitreyee, her dearest cousin, to give to her!) and waited for the surprise birthday gift:

And no birthday is complete without CAKE (we made marble cake and Ella decorated it with very little help):

It was definitely a weekend and day to remember!!!

Change

I remember reading somewhere that "the only constant thing in life is change." Very true. We see change every day and all around: change in nature's lifecyle, change in the political landscape, change in fashion, change in values (unfortunately), change in attitudes, currents of thought, etc. Some of it is natural, welcome, and good, while some is not. Today I am celebrating the good kind of change: the one that brought so much focus, happiness, and peace in my life. The change that unleashed the "monster"/"beast" in me, making me to absolutely LOVE physical exercise.

A simple glance at pictures taken throughout the years uncover the obvious: the change consists of the weight loss and maybe a few different haircuts and haircolors here and there. But the change is much deeper than that and not visible with the naked eye. It is the inner change I treasure and value the most over the physical change because it is the inner change that triggered and fueled the physical change. They fed off of each other in a way and are continuing to do so. I learned for myself that there is no better gift that I can give to the ones I love and to myself than to take care of my body and spirit inside and out.

Almost a complete physical, mental, and spiritual re-birth of sorts. My change and transformation are I guess  just another testament anyone can do it. "We can always do more than we think we are capable of!! I now believe this with all my heart.

Texas State Fair

First time to the Texas State Fair did not dissapoint: there was a little bit of everything for every one but mostly tons of fried (and I'm sure yummy) food!!! We would not know anything about that though since fair food is out of question when you have food allergies. But you know what? That's actually a good thing in this instance! :) We did make our own dairy-free version of the infamous funnel cake (three of them in fact) before leaving home and it was delish!!

(For a moment I thought of sprinkling some flax seeds in there but then changed my mind... with the amount of sugar and oil that went into that thing, my flax seeds wouldn't have made a difference! lol ;))

The fair is a major Fall attraction here in TX. It's always in the Arts District and pulls a huge crowd every time, from what we heard. The nice thing about it is that since it's so spread out, even with lots of people walking around, it still doesn't feel crowded.

Ella won her first prize at the "Fish the ducky" game and enjoyed quite a few rides.

I did the paddle boats and the huge slide with her while Hrishi conveniently watched from the side lines! :) The paddle boats ride was really harmless in and of itself but after running my first 5K yesterday (on the treadmill), it turned out to be quite a task for my poor legs. Now the slide is a different story: with my fear of heights, climbing up about 100 ft or so and then letting go on a piece of thick felt with my baby on my lap, turned out to be pretty scary. Lucky me that Ella was sitting in front and I got to "hide" behind her. Laying on my back helped get us some momentum going down but also alleviated some of my fear! Haha! He's really using my recent motto that "it's good for me to do hard things each and every day" on me. :)

Gigantic crab with really nice table setting at the Children's Aquarium! :)

The slide... you can't probably tell how tall this thing was!

Back on track

Happy Columbus Day! I love this day already, why? Well, first because school is out and I know Ella is so excited to be at Primrose today and enjoy pajama and movie day with her friends and then be picked up early for the State Fair. Because after I got to drop her off, I went to get the mail and the fresh cool air and deep green grass, trees, and bushes just swept me off my feet. Love this cool rainy weather! It's funny because I didn't use to like this kind of weather before. When I'm happy on the inside, the weather can't mess too much with my mood.

I like to see this when I look out my window:

I know it's going to be a great day also because I'm going to do my strength and cardio today and it's going to feel great. I have to get those legs going and ready for the 5k at the FAAN (Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network) Walk/Run this Saturday. To erradicate the last 10-15 lbs of fat (and replace them with muscle), I'm back to tracking my food religiously at livestrong.com. And of course, watching my intake like a "hawk." And I think hawk is better than monster how I've been lovlingly (I HOPE!!!!) nicknamed by my husband and trainer. (I have to dig into that a little deeper and find out how all this came down.)

I know it's going to be a great day because rain or sun, we'll get to hangout together this afternoon: Ella, Hrishi, and I. We love hanging out together, you know. In fact, we're always together and that feels super!

(This is from Sea Life Aquarium, really neat place!)

(A moment of daughter-father love. In fact, Ella is "hissing" at Hrishi, lovingly of course!)

(This is from Forth Worth Zoo, me gazing somewhere but where? I was definitely not looking at the camera! Lol! :))

 (On the glass floor portion of the aquarium at Sea Life.)

I know it's going to be a great day because church was great yesterday and the lessons in Sunday School and Relief Society have seemed to have filled my inner spiritual well to the brim. [I'm sure church is great every Sunday, it's just that I seem to get most out of it when I'm prepared and willing to listen.]

And because I have these two wonderful people by my side:

And because I know He loves and understands me as He does all of us.