I've got a dirty mind

I've got a dirty mind.








I've been keeping it a secret for a long time.








So what kind of dirty thoughts have I been having?








Really dirty. Down right filthy!








Are you ready for this?








I want to play in the mud.








Seriously.







I've always thought that mud wrestling looked like fun. Not that I really want to wrestle with anyone, but just rolling around in the mud looks like fun.







Earlier this week I posted a challenge to the other members on the community bulletin board our gym has (nationwide) and challenged all of them, regardless of their fitness level, to participate in a 5k event sometime in the month of September. Doesn't matter if they walk, jog, run or crawl, just get out there and DO IT!
One of the other gals took me up on my challenge and is doing a Warrior Dash. I'd never heard of such a thing but my interest was piqued so I googled it. Then I really got intrigued! A Warrior Dash is a 5k with an obstacle course thrown in along with wading across a creek, diving into the mud, jumping over burning logs, crawling under barbed wire... just to name a few of the obstacles. I went to Youtube and watch some videos and they looked like TOO MUCH FUNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Where is the closest one and when is it??

Well, a Warrior Dash isn't like your everyday 5k, obviously. 5k's are a dime a dozen in our community. You'd be hard pressed to find 10 weekends out of the entire year in our area that isn't having some kind of running event. But nothing at all like this. I searched the web and the closest one I could find was about a 3 hour drive from home, up in Indiana. Hey, that's okay, sign me up! The next event though is in August of 2012. Darn!! (Click the links to see more about it)
Okay, who am I kidding? Part of me is ready to do it right now, but in all honesty, I know I'm not physically ready for such an event. This gives me 11 and a half months to get ready for it. But right now I am so stoked I can hardly wait for the next year to pass!! I'm even considering getting some sessions with the personal trainer at the gym to help me get ready.
Only 346 days to go!
Let the dirty fun begin!
I

Lazy Lazarus Lives

Yesterday evening, I was feeling rather lowly. I had sat one of my tanks of tadpoles outside around noon time. It was the tank that had the more-developed batch of tadpoles and froglets. I had read that they develop quicker in warmer temperatures and feeling that perhaps it was a bit too cool in our house, I thought I'd be doing them a favor by setting them outside in the warmer air. I made sure to put them in a shady spot, a spot I knew would still be shaded when we returned home that evening. But shade or no shade, I guess it got a bit too warm for the little critters. **sniff**
Imagine my horror when I got home that evening and found 2 of the tadpoles dead and one of the little froglets barely clinging to life.
The three froglets that had already emerged seemed to be fine, but one that had obviously spent some time out of the water (he no longer had a tail), didn't fair so well. He was bobbing along in the water like a cork, all four legs splayed out before him. He didn't rest on the bottom as some were doing and he wasn't hovering just below the surface of the water, he was simply floating along in the middle. He looked dead. Every so often, he seemed to rally and would suddenly come to life and swim a few strokes in a valiant effort to reach the surface, trying with all his might to jump up out of the water and cling to the wall of their enclosure, but he just couldn't get enough umph in his leap and he'd sink back into the water where he'd once again float along without movement. I watched him do this for quite a while and eventually he stopped trying. I saw no movement, not even when I jiggled the tank which makes all the others scurry around. I got a plastic spoon to try and fish him out. I nudged him, nothing. After a few failed attempts (he kept sliding off the spoon and back into the water), I finally was able to fish him out. He laid lifeless in the spoon. I laid the spoon on the patio and went to fetch a dog-poop bag (an empty one) that we kept just inside the backdoor. I deposited the froglet and sat the bag by the pooper scooper to use later when the dogs did their business.
And of course later that night, Phoebe did her business, which I promptly scooped up and deposited into the bag along with the dead froglet and one other tadpole I'd fished out. The other dead tadpole had been fished out earlier and deposited in a full doody-bag and put in the dumpster. Indeed, it was a sad day in my tadpole world.
This morning I let the dogs out again to do their business. Both Eliott and Phoebe left me a present in the yard so I set about with the scooper and scooped up their gifts. I picked up the bag that was still lying there from last night and untied the handles to open it up wide. Imagine my surprise to find the little froglet clinging to the side of the bag, staring up at me, just waiting for the chance to escape. It was a miracle!! Actually, it was a miracle it could stand to breath considering it was trapped with a large pile of dog poop just inches away all night.
So I rescued the little froglet once again and put him in a tank all by himself. I've named him "Lazy Lazarus".
I know he wasn't "dead" for four days as was Lazarus, but that's okay. I thought about calling him Jesus (Hay-soos), but decided he was just being very lazy, floating along in the warm water, so Lazy-Lazarus he is now called. He is one that I'm definitely going to keep and not return tot he wild. Right now, he's at work with me, being very active and hopping all over his tank.

So I thought this song "Po' Lazarus" would be appropriate under the circumstances. If you'll recall in the movie "O' Brother Where Art Thou?", John Turturro's character "came back to life as a frog" after he'd been loved-up...

Cardio Kick-XXXing class

Last night was the first class in my cardio kickass class. Oh, um, I mean, kickBOXing class.
Fortunately, it's a small class, only 4 students. Two other women about my age and a teenager. The instructor looked like she could kick any (if not ALL) of our butts with one arm tied behind her back and not even break a sweat doing so. I wouldn't want to run into her in a dark alley, and if I were ever in a fight with someone, I'd definitely want her on my side. But as imposing as she is, she seemed like an absolute sweetheart.
She promised to keep it low-impact and low-intensity last night as we were all beginners, but by the end of the hour, I felt like I'd just completed the Ironman Tri-athalon. She told us the intensity would increase every week. Increase? Holy cr@p!! It was all I could do to keep up at the low impact level. I can't even begin to imagine how intense it's going to be at the end of 6 weeks!!!!
After showing us how to execute each kind of kick and punch, she started putting them all together in a "routine" and stepped up the pace. The punches I had no problem keeping up, but when it came to the kicks, well, my long legs just don't move that fast. I was just finishing executing my first kick while the girl next to me was getting ready to start her third kick, and even at that, I wasn't getting my kicks executed properly as I was trying frantically t0 keep up. I was of course standing in the front row, so I have no idea how the other two women behind me were doing, and is it really fair to compare myself to a girl that's about 18 and pencil thin? No, I don't think so either. And omg, I had such a hard time balancing on one foot to do anything! I guess I still have a lot of room for improvement in my journey to a new me.

I drained my 32oz bottle of water and had to re-fill it from the water fountain before leaving last night. I think next week that 2 bottles are in order. On week three, we're supposed to add stretchy-bands and small weights to the routine. Yikes!!
I feared I wouldn't even be able to roll out of bed this morning, much less be able to go to the gym as usual, but I did. Yes, many of my muscles are aching, some of the joints too, although not as bad as I'd feared. Mostly my shoulders and sides(obliques) are what's hurting the most.
Many of the moves she had us doing (aside from the punches and kickboxing-kicks) were identical to things I did when I worked out to my Richard Simmons tapes, only it was like doing his work-out on steroids or like playing a 33-lp on a 45-speed (for you youngsters, that's a reference to back when music was played on a record player... go ask your grandmother what I'm talking about). It made me feel like dusting off those videos and giving them another whirl.
Cardio kickboxing, it's not for the faint of heart. But I'll get these final few pounds off or die trying....

Update on Phoebe and the other kids

I thought it was time for some updated photos of Pheebs. I haven't weighed her recently, but I can tell she's put on quite a bit of weight since we got her. Her ribs aren't nearly as pronounced as they were.
She loves to aggravate Eliott every chance she gets. Sometimes he doesn't mind and they get to wrestling around on the floor, but occasionally he gets a bit cranky and wants no part of it. Fortunately, in these pix, he was in a playful mood.
Please pardon our mess on the floor. Pretty much every toy they own was scattered about.

Kind of looks like they're playing kissy-face.

Olivia ventured over to check out the action.

And now she's decided she wants no part of it so she's leaving.

Phoebe & Olivia actually play very well together also. They like to play tug-o-war with any "skin" of a formerly stuffed animal. It's so cute to see Olivia teasing Pheebs, walking past her, dangling the toy in front of her until Phoebe takes the bait and holds on to the other end, taking turns dragging each other around the room.

I took these outdoor photos this morning.

Eliott was checking out the bushes, trying to decide if they needed to be "watered".

Phoebe just loves to stand on her hind legs and watch people walk by. She rarely ever barks, just watches the world pass by.

And once her curiosity is satisfied, she's off! Zipping around the yard, it's hard to get a decent picture of her as she's in constant motion...

And then there is that rare moment...

when she does stand still and allow me to take her picture.

Sunday evening as we took the girls out for their evening walk, we hadn't gotten very far, just to the intersection behind our house. The girls of course sat as they are supposed to do when we stop, and then to my surprise, a couple of neighbors across the road came out of their house flagging us down, asking to meet the new pup.

These people have lived in that house for probably 5 or 6 years and I can count on one hand with fingers to spare how many conversations we've had with them. I don't even know their names (first or last). The last conversation I did have with the husband was a couple of days after we got Phoebe. He had seen me walking her and commented that he'd seen one at the Humane Soc. that looked just like her. I smiled and told him she was in fact that pup.

So they crossed the street and Phoebe immediately leaned on the woman as she petted her. We talked and she told me as her husband had about having seen her at the KHS. They had adopted a cat that same week apparently, and had planned on telling us about the dane pup that was up for adoption, but hadn't gotten the chance to tell us. As it turned out, we were already in the process of making her ours. While we talked, Phoebe continued to lean and soak up the attention being showered upon her and Olivia sat patiently, looking to John for the occasional treat for sitting so pretty.

The woman then said something that made my heart swell with pride. She commented that our dogs were always so well-mannered.

THAT is exactly the kind of remark I love to hear. Of course we all enjoy hearing that others think our pets are cute/pretty, or fun to watch, but I'll take the "well mannered" compliment over all others any day!!

Splash to Hippity-Hop

Well, I had this nice long post, then realized I had it posted on the wrong blog. Oops!
I don't think I have the energy to type the whole thing again, so here's the short version:

I am once again raising tadpoles. I brought 31 of them home from the farm about a month ago. Only 1 has passed away. They've grown quite a bit in that time and in the past few days just started sprouting their hind legs. They're so cute!! You can even see the indivdual toes on their feet. I figure in the next 10 days to 2 weeks they'll start emerging from the water and spending part of their days sitting on the rocks. They are changing at a rapid pace and you can see changes on a daily basis.
I've got them divided into three containers of 10 each, separated for the most part based on their level of development.





I know, I know, you're probably wondering what on earth I'm going to do with 30 frogs once they're fully developed. Trust me, I intend to return most of them to the wooded area from which they came. I remember from the last time how difficult it was keeping just 3 of them from escaping every time I had to feed them or clean their habitat. I'm hoping that these are the same type of tree frogs that I had last time, only time will tell.
It turned out to be a fortunate thing that I did bring these 30 home, otherwise they'd already be dead. One of the part-time workers at the farm dumped out the water trough where I found them, thus killing all of the remaining tadpoles. **sniff** At least now these little guys have a shot at surviving to adulthood.
I'll post updates as they mature. Stay tuned...

Staying organized

I've been trying to maintain 2 different blogs of late. My personal one and one for our pet therapy group. Without realizing what I'd done, yesterday I posted twice to the pet therapy blog my personal stuff. I just discovered it this morning. How embarrassing!! I couldn't get those posts deleted fast enough.
Must be more careful in the future.

For those of you that do maintain multiple blogs on a daily basis, my hats off to you. I don't know how you manage to keep it straight all the time.

Pi$$ing contest

The last thing I want to do is get into a pi$$ing contest with an instructor, but honestly, it was all I could do to bite my tongue at class last night.
I've known this woman for nearly 15 years. That's not to imply that we're friends. We simply have a teacher/student relationship. While yes, she has instructed the last 4 dogs we've had (and for 1 class our first dane), she really doesn't know anything about our lives outside of class, and I kindly resent some of her comments in class about what our dog(s) are/aren't doing and more specifically, about the type of equipment we chose to use.
If I simply wanted my dog(s) to learn to sit, lie down, stay and come, then I can teach those things on my own. But the reason I take my dogs to obedience school is to learn to deal with the distractions and chaos we otherwise wouldn't have at home or when walking around our neighborhood, and to get them socialized.
I am a HUGE fan of the Gentle-Leader. I won't walk Olivia without one. The only time she sets foot out of the house without one on is if we're going straight to the car or if it's just a quick potty-break. Otherwise, she's not allowed outside without hers on.
Phoebe has learned she's not allowed out the front door unless hers is on, even if we're just going to the car and she's learned she's not allowed to get out of the car until I've put it back on her.
We've had her for 7 weeks now and she has settled down SO much! She walks beautifully on a loose leash, and only on occasion do I have to remind her to get back or keep up. In fact, I can walk both of my girls at the same time BY MYSELF, keeping both of them on my left side with minimal effort. Both girls sit automatically when we get to an intersection or we stop (although as we get near the end of our walk, sometimes Phoebe has to be reminded as her attention span has started to wander off). I think that speaks volumes for how well my dogs can walk on a leash.
In all honesty, I don't care if my dog(s) don't sit exactly straight facing forward when they sit. I'm just happy they sit. And I don't care if their bodies are centered exactly by my side. In all honesty, with the girls vision problems, I'd actually rather have them a bit behind me, or so that their head is right by my leg, so they can see me better and I don't have to tug on them to get their attention.
That having been said...
Our instructor seems to have become a huge fan of the pinch-collar since I last took classes from her. Maybe she was before and I just don't remember it, but honestly, I think all but maybe 2 of the other 9 nine dogs in our class are wearing them and most of them are on loan from her while class is in session. I'm sorry, but I absolutely REFUSE to put a pinch collar on my dog(s). I think those things are barbaric!! Now, if I could get my dog(s) to walk on a loose lead simply using a flat collar or a soft-choker, then I'd be thrilled, but I've never been able to accomplish this, so I feel using the Gentle Leader is absolutely acceptable. It's humane, the dog doesn't get choked or pinched, and it makes walking them a pleasant experience.
Up until class last night, Phoebe has always come when called... as long as she sees me sweeping my arm to call her in. That's the key... "as long as she sees me". And even if I haven't specifically called her to "come", if she happens to look around when we're in the back yard and I'm standing by the back door, she has never waited for me to call to her, instead, she's always come running. So in class last night we worked on teaching our dogs to come when called. Her first attempt was less than dismal. She wasn't focused on me and as soon as the instructor let go of her, she wandered off to visit with the other dogs. For that, I got chastised by the instructor for using a Gentle Leader. WTF??? I don't think a G/L had a darn thing to do with it. She started in on me about how I'm controlling her head at all time, guiding it where to go and the first opportunity she has to not be restrained by me, her head starts turning in every which direction and not paying attention to me.
Um, excuse me?!?!?
First of all, I don't "control" her head. When we walk, she's on a loose lead and her head is free to turn and look in any direction she chooses as long as she keeps walking in the correct direction. Second of all, she's got a stranger (the instructor) holding her back by the collar (not something she's used to having done to her), so as soon as she's let go, yeah, she wonders off to wherever and I may or may not have caught her attention. Now on the 2nd and 3rd time we did this exercise, she came straight to me both times as she was more focused on me.
When I was getting chastised for using the G/L, I felt like saying, "better that I control her head in a gentle fashion than to put a torture device on the dog and make her afraid of doing something wrong like all these other dogs".
Training a deaf/blind dog takes a little longer than a normally functioning dog, but that doesn't mean they can't learn the lesson. Phoebe has proven to be a very smart girl and I think with time and patience, she'll do even better than Olivia. But don't be critical for every little thing we do/don't do. You don't live in our household and have no idea what the rules are around our house. I've no plans on competing with these dogs, so perfectly square sitting or "staying" without moving for 2 minutes isn't a priority in our lives.

Then and Now

Okay, I thought it was time for an update on my journey to a new me.
I didn't really take a "before" picture, so I just had to look around and try to find some photos of me before I became a "LOSER!".


This was taken in August of 2010

And this was January of this year, just a couple of weeks before I decided to change my life.

When I joined Snap at the end of January, I was 275 lbs. I had a body mass index of 36.5 and was 42.7% body fat. Me measurements were:
Waist: 46"
Hips: 49"
Thigh: 22"
Calf: 16"
Bicep: 14"
Chest: 46"

Needless to say, I was in rather piss-poor condition and fell into the obese category. I received a fitness score of "8" which fell into the "poor" category.

This past Saturday, I met with the personal trainer, Denise, for a 6-month follow-up, reassessment. She was so happy to see me (obviously, she's not there when I go at 3:30 in the mornings) and high-fived me on my progress. She was also excited because I was the first person that had ever had a reassessment done. I don't know if that means others she's evaluated didn't stick with the program or if they just never got back with her, but I'm in it for the long-haul, so I want to keep up with my progress and reassessing things as needed.

So here I am now...

(with my girls, Olivia and Phoebe)

I still have a ways to go, but I am within easy reach of my goal.

I am now down to 197 lbs, with a BMI of 27.8.

My measurements now are:

Waist: 37"

Hips: 41"

Thigh: 20"

Calf: 15"

Bicep: 12"

Chest: 40"

My fitness score didn't come up as much as I had hoped, it is now a "13" which is in the "fair" category.

I'm hoping the kick-boxing class that I start later this month will help me lose those final 17 lbs. (or else I'll die trying).

Denise wants to reassess me again in late October, once I've (hopefully)hit my goal and see if the score doesn't go way up... I'm at least hoping for a "20".

I'll check back in with y'all at that time.

Here's to good health!!