Puppy is home!

Since I made my goal yesterday to get my workout done as soon as I wake up from now on, I thought that it’d be a terrible start if I lounged around the first morning after making my goal. I did my 30 min workout on my elliptical. The workout is broken up into 2 minute intervals like this:

1-2 min: resistance 2 rpm 55

2-4 min: resistance 3 rpm 55

5-6 min: resistance 5 rpm 60

7-8 min: resistance 7 rpm 50

9-10 min: resistance 4 rpm 65

11-12 min: resistance 6 rpm 60

13-14 min: resistance 8 rpm 50

15-16 min: resistance 3 rpm 70

17-18 min: resistance 5 rpm 60

19-20 min: resistance 7 rpm 55

21-22 min: resistance 4 rpm 65

23-24 min: resistance 6 rpm 60

25-26 min: resistance 8 rpm 50

27-28 min: resistance 3 rpm 55

29-30 min: resistance 2 rpm 55

It is a really good workout and I sweat profusely starting at the 5-6 min mark until the end. My favorite part of the workout is at the 27-28 min mark because that’s the cool down and I’m pretty much done by that point. After that, I did 6 reps of 25 crunches and 4 reps of 25 tricep dips. I was done with my workout and shower by the time I had to take Noah to school (AJ doesn’t have Preschool on Wednesdays) and it really felt like an accomplishment.

For breakfast, I ate a piece of 7 grain toast with a little bit of butter and an apple. For lunch, I ate a tuna sandwich with a pickle. For dinner, it was left over night. I had a bowl of beans with onions and sour cream. I haven’t drank near enough water today. I’m only on my 4th 24 oz bottle.

After breakfast this morning, I took Kennady’s “jamma’s” as she calls them, off, took her potty into AJ’s room and all 3 of us went in there to organize his room. It took us 2 1/2 hours! It was crazy how unorganized his toys were and how much trash was in his toy bins also. After everything was organized, I went through all of his clothes and took out all of the one’s he’s out grown. We filled up 3 diaper boxes with clothes and a few pairs of shoes. Next, I decided to rearrange his room and bring in framed super hero posters from Noah’s room (I’ll be doing Noah’s room tomorrow so check back on that) since that is going to be the theme of AJ’s room. Last year for AJ’s 4th birthday, we did an avenger themed party  and Nicole and her boyfriend, (my husband’s cousin) Josh, drew this skyline for the dessert table backdrop. I’ve been saving it so that we can put it up in his room and I finally got around to it today. It is such a cool art piece and AJ thinks it’s awesome in his room! I still need to trim it and get some borders to go around it.

 

 

 

These are the pictures from AJ’s party:

 

 

I made these masks for AJ’s present

 

 

I made these capes for each of the kids

 

 

Jake and his sister, Jessica, trying on AJ’s masks

 

The party set up

 

 

The cake was made by Connie Hall at Frosting on Top Cake Shop. She is AMAZING and has been making cakes for my parties for 2 years now. The first one she ever did for me was for my baby shower when I was pregnant with Kennady.

 

I forgot to post pictures of  Kennady’s room after I organized it so here they are:

 

 

 

 

 Kennady went from 9:00 until 11:30 ish without an accident but she also didn’t use her potty the entire time. I put a diaper on her for lunch time. After dinner tonight, I took her diaper off again and she’s doing good. Still not using her potty but she is telling us that she needs to go and then she’ll sit on her potty for a second and then get off and say, “no potty” I don’t know about this!!! I think she might still be too young but she tells me when she goes in her diaper and asks me to change her so I figure she’s ready.

We were able to bring Chase home today! If you missed what happened you can read all about it here. I was so excited when the vet called us. I was not so excited when I had to pay the bill, but ya gotta do what you gotta do. I brought his bed with us because I didn’t think he’d be up to walking but WOW, I was wrong! The tech brought him out to me on a leash and he doesn’t even have a bandage anymore. He was limping a little bit but he was walking on it. He will stick it out when he is standing still but for the most part you would never guess that anything is wrong. He was so excited to see me! He was licking my face and whimpering. It made me so happy.

 

 

 

I decided as apart of my post each day I’m going to put a little something that my grandma tells me so you guys can get a good laugh like I get to every day. This morning, she was talking to me about how she’s never smoked before (she saw a picture of a family member that used to smoke) but her 5 brothers smoked all the time. She said that although her and her sister never tobacco or drugs, one time they went out into her dad’s corn field in Mexico after the corn had dried and they smoked the corn cobs! She said that her dad came running to where they were because he saw smoke and she said it was the only time her dad disciplined her. Who thinks to smoke a corn cob!? haha!

I saw this on my Facebook feed just a while ago and thought it was pretty interesting. I think I’ve always thought like the one on the left but I really want to think like the one on the right. I’m going to really try to overcome thinking like the left because that is so limiting.

Ahhh! Kennady just used the potty for the first time!!!! Just a little bit but it’s still a big deal!

 

Wishing you a goodnight, positive thinking, and a great Thursday!
xo,
Tristen

Organize, workout, and a shoutout to a great friend

I am on the go from the time the kids wake up until long after their asleep. So, in the morning, before Kennady wakes up and while my boys are getting ready for school I use that time to catch up on my DVR shows, read my scriptures, or craft ya know, just something for me. I feel like I could get a lot more done in my day if I would just do my workout as soon as I wake up at 6 am instead of doing nothing and having to get re-motivated after I take the boys to school. That is my new goal to get my workout done as soon as I wake up, shower, and get on with my day. If I can do that, I can get as much or more done during the day than before I started working out. I’ve really let my house work go and it’s driving me crazy.

After I took the boys to school today and fed Kennady, I decided I’d put off organizing Kennady’s room for way too long. I went through her closet and dresser and took out her shoes and clothes that no longer fit her. It is ridiculous how many clothes she has grown out of, some that she never even wore. I filled up 9 diaper boxes and a diaper genie box with all the things she’s outgrown. Now she has so much more space in her closet and soooo many hangers. I thought I needed to go buy more but now I don’t. I also took the glider and ottoman I had re-covered to match her room, out and I need to sell it. It was kind of an emotional moment for me. She is the last baby I’m going to have and now she doesn’t need me to rock her to sleep. I’m enjoying the new things she is doing though. She loves to talk to me, she loves to use her imagination to play, she is telling me when she goes potty in her diaper, and she loves to color.

Once I was done with Kennady’s room, I did my HIIT workout. I can’t do push ups yet and I don’t think I mentioned this in my previous post but where it tells you to do pushups I do more crunches (except the last set of 5 pushups I did squats instead). I added up the totals of this workout and here they are: Jumping Jacks- 275 Crunches- 185 Squats- 100! Jumping Jacks seem so easy at first and then when I hit 25, I really start feeling it. I feel the squats instantly and the crunches I really start feeling them at 25 also. During this whole workout I think, “I can’t finish this. Keep going. I can’t do it. You’ll feel so good once you’re done. I can’t do it. YES I CAN!” It is a constant battle but I know I’ll be so disappointed if I don’t finish it so I push on. Today, when I was doing my jumping jacks, Kennady came up and touched my butt and laughed so hard! Then, she’d go sit on the couch and pretty soon she was right back to touching my butt and laughing. When I’m doing my crunches, she will lay by me and put her hands above her head and say, “1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16!” She is my workout buddy and is always asking, “What doing?” I’ll tell her I’m working out and then she asks again. She is so funny. I had to go cool down outside because I was burning up after I was done.

Right after my workout, I got AJ off the bus and took a quick shower while he had a snack and Kennady had lunch. AJ is such a great helper with Kennady. I had to hurry and vacuum the living room because it was disgusting! My kids seem to ignore our “no eating in the living room” rule. My great friend (and my husband’s cousin’s girlfriend) came over with their baby who is 3 days younger than Kennady. It was so much fun to be pregnant at the same time as her. They are expecting their 2nd child in August and I am just as excited as if I were having another baby. Nicole has been with me through some of the worst days, weeks, months of my life and has seen me at my lowest and was always there for me. The most amazing part to me is that she still is there. After seeing all my craziness through the days when I used to drink, to me crying to her over Jake, from her and I not talking for months to picking up right where we left off, she is always there. There are very few people like that and she is the only person outside of my family that has been there and still is there for me through it all. Love you Nic! So, we both needed a play date and so did our kids. Kennady wasn’t very nice to Stellan though and it made me so sad because Stellan is such a sweet-hearted little guy and Kennady is a bully. I had to put her in timeout several times and finally I just put her down for a nap. AJ loves playing with Stellan too so they played together the rest of the time and finally got out the “boy toys” (cars, trucks, tools etc.) Its so cute to see them play.

Not much else happened today aside from my Grandma coming over in the morning and in the evening. She tells me the same stories almost every time she comes over. She was talking to me today about a couple of men that have passed away recently in our community and it must have triggered something because she started talking about her father’s passing. She told me that before he died when her and her siblings were visiting him in the hospital he told her that her mother, who passed before him, came to him and asked what is taking him so long and she is waiting for him. She said that as they were leaving the hospital a nurse came running after them and told them that he had just passed. I don’t know how much of this story is true because of her dementia but it is a sweet sentiment nonetheless.

For breakfast today I had 1/2 cup of rasin bran crunch with a splash of 2% milk. Milk is a HUGE weakness for me and always has been. I used to drink 1-2 gallons of milk per week in high school and wouldn’t gain a pound. I really have to watch how much I drink now. For lunch I had a small bowl of left over baked chicken spaghetti. For dinner Jake brought home subway. He got me a 6″ Italian BMT (sooo fattening) on flatbread with tons of veggies. This used to be my go to sandwich so he figured it still was. I drank a diet coke with dinner as well. I had 6- 24 oz bottles of water so far today and am on my 7th.

 

Look at my cute little blogging buddy! “what doing mama?”

 

Have a great night and a great Wednesday!

xo,

Tristen

Another Day

I am a fan of the shows the Bachelor and the Bachelorette but I haven’t watched this season with Juan Pablo but I loved Sean’s season so I recorded and watched Sean and Catherine’s wedding this morning before taking the boys to school. It was a really pretty wedding and everything was great about it but really, it made me think about my wedding. I looked at my wedding pictures and thought I’d share a few of my favorite ones.

I was still really sore this morning and I thought for a second about resting one more day but I’ve heard that the best thing to do when your muscles are sore is to workout again.  I decided to do my normal elliptical workout instead of the HIIT one I did the other day. After I did my 30 min cardio, I rushed down to the bus stop to get AJ, checked the mail where I got the lovely bill for my daughters surgery for tubes in her ears. Ugh! I hate medical bills. Anyway, when I got back home and got Kennady set up with lunch in her high chair, I did 6 reps of 25 crunches, 3 reps of 20 bicep curls with a 5 lb weight with each arm, and 3 reps of 20 tricep dips. OH WOW! My arms were killing me afterward.

 I drank 5- 24 oz bottles of water. Once again, breakfast got away from me. For lunch I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I had 1 cucumber for a snack. I made beans for dinner. I put 2 cups of beans in the crockpot and filled it up with boiling water, a hamhock, 1/2 an onion, 1 head of garlic with the top cut off, and 1 palmful of salt. I set it to cook on high for 4 hours only because I was pressed for time, normally I would’ve set it for 6 hours (they could’ve stood to cook for a bit longer) but they were still very good. Growing up, we always put sour cream in our beans and I still do to this day. I had made Spanish rice a few nights ago with green chile and it was too hot for my kids so we still had some left over which I added to my bowl of beans along with some cheese and onions. I cooked some corn tortillas on the stovetop burner also.

 

I got to hear from my brother who was called to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to Brazil but he is serving in Mesa until he gets his visa. He’s been out for 9 months. I love to get his emails and hear about what he’s doing and the lives he’s effecting. He has turned into a great young man! He was able to go to the Gilbert, AZ temple open house and he loved it. I really hope I’ll be able to go as well.

I let Kennady run around without a diaper while I was doing my workout and she didn’t have any accidents but she still isn’t using her potty. AJ has been having some pretty huge meltdown’s lately about everything. I don’t know what to do about it. I try to calm him down, get after him, talk to him, and reason with him. I don’t know what is going on with him or how to handle it.

Chase got his surgery done today and everything went great. We were able to go visit him. He is on pain medicine and will be until Wednesday morning so he was pretty lethargic. He perked up when I talked to him and loved on him though. We’ll get to bring him home on Wednesday evening. He’ll have to take it easy for 6 weeks (I don’t know how to make a puppy “take it easy” but we’ll figure it out), then he’ll have to go back for x-rays in a month to make sure that he’s healing good and then he’ll get the pins out at the 6 week point. We were all really happy to see him and can’t wait until we have him home again. Also, I don’t know if his bandage could be any bigger but as long as he’s getting better.

Not a whole lot happened today now that I see it all written out lol. I have laundry still sitting in the washer, dryer, piles in the hall, my bathroom still needs to be cleaned, my bedroom still need to be cleaned, and I still need to organize the kids rooms. However, I got my workout in and played with my kids so it was a good day.
Goodnight and have a great Tuesday!
xo,
Tristen

Week 1 Weigh in

As you’ve probably noticed, I gave my blog an overhaul, including a new name. I chose the name, REALizing Joy because I am a REAL mom, with REAL kids, a REAL husband, REAL weight issues, REAL setbacks, and REAL accomplishments. When I say REAL, I do so because I think a lot of people think that they shouldn’t or can’t start a blog unless they have something important to say. I love hearing about and reading real everyday people’s blogs. I find it comforting to know that I’m not the only person going through these things and I like to get ideas on how I could handle my life in a different way if I need to. This blog helps keep me accountable, helps me decompress, and gives me a way to reach out to other REAL moms for answers or suggestions.

I woke up today feeling very anxious to weigh in. I am the type of person that needs to see results pretty quickly to feel like I’m doing a good job. I was pleasantly surprised with the results of my weigh in. Hopefully I can continue to keep the discipline I know it will take to see these types of results each week.

Sunday 1/19
Weight 158 lbs.
Measurements
Bust: 41 in.
Waist 40 in.
Hips 40.5 in.










Sunday 1/26
Weight 155 lbs. Lost 3 lbs.
Measurements
Bust: 40.5 in. Lost 1/2 in.
Waist: 39.5 in. Lost 1/2 in.
Hips 40.5 in. No loss

I am so sore today from my workout yesterday that I am waddling around like I just gave birth. Jake has been making fun of me all day. I still wore my 5 1/2 inch stilettos to church today but it sure made going up and down the stairs interesting. Hopefully nobody could see the pain I was trying to hold in. I didn’t end up doing any cardio today because I can barely move. I did a lot of stretching and I did 6 reps of 25 crunches which are getting easier every day so hopefully I will be able to do a full sit up soon.

We go to church from 11-2 this year which is nice because we aren’t rushing around in the morning to get out the door but it’s right during nap time. Today Jake was home so I left Kennady with him so she could get her nap. My calling in church is to be the teacher of the 8-11 year old girls. I always procrastinate planning my lesson. Every week I say I’m going to plan it earlier but every week I find myself planning my lesson Sunday morning. Today was no different and I didn’t end up eating breakfast again. I’ve got to break out of that habit and start eating breakfast! I drank 5- 24 oz bottles of water today. I had half of a tuna sandwich for lunch. Jake made dinner tonight which I was so thankful for. He went to the doctor when he turned 35 in November and found out that his cholesterol is 254 and it should be under 200! Ever since then he has been very mindful about eating healthy and has been a huge help to me with my eating habits.
He made Chicken Baked Spaghetti. It was so good! Also, I had a Diet Coke for dinner….. it was also so good lol!

I just saw some very sad news to our community on Facebook. A dear Coach, Bishop, Teacher, Friend, Father, Husband, and Role Model (the list could go on and on) passed from this life into the next. He truly touched so many hearts and lives. He had a huge effect on my family and I hope his family can find comfort in Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation during this difficult time in their lives. It is comforting to know that we will see our loved ones again someday. Cluff family, we love you and you are in our thoughts and prayers.
Goodnight all and enjoy your Monday!
xo,
Tristen

Saturday is a special day…..

Saturdays are always busy in the Cockrell house. The kids are involved in sports every season and now that AJ is old enough to play sports we are running the boys everywhere. Luckily soccer hasn’t started for AJ yet so we just have Noah’s basketball games to go to. He has 2 of them every Saturday.

This was last week but I thought it was too cute not to share

We also have housework to do on Saturday’s. I don’t know about you guys but growing up, Saturday was the housework day. When we woke up Saturday morning, and before we could go anywhere or do anything, we had to have our chores done. We had to dust the whole house, vacuum, sweep, mop, clean the 2 bathrooms, clean our rooms, and in the summer we also had yard work to do. Of course we also had laundry to do but since that can’t possibly be done in a blink of an eye we just had to make sure we kept up with it through out the day. There were 4 of us kids so we were able to knock out our chores pretty quickly when we weren’t fighting about who needed to do what. I promise I’m not complaining about all of this, although at the time I thought it was TORTURE, I just want to let you know that this became habit for me and I make my kids do the same thing lol. Since they’re younger, 9, 5, and 1, they don’t do all of that but they do each have chores they are responsible for. Sometimes I wonder if I’m giving them more than their capable of at their ages but I do help them with their responsibilities.

I’ve been waking up all week with terrible headaches. I can’t figure out why other than I’m not drinking enough water maybe but I feel like I’m drinking a ton. Like I’ve said in previous posts I normally drink 5-7 24 oz bottles of water per day. Isn’t that enough?! Anyway, it happened again this morning and I really had to push myself to get ready and go to Noah’s basketball games. I tried my hardest not to take any medicine for it because I hate taking medicine when I don’t absolutely have to but finally at 11:30 I took some ibuprophin and I felt so much better shortly after. When we got back home and I got AJ and Kennady down for their naps I got going on my workout. I needed to change it up a bit though because I was getting bored doing the same thing every day so I decided to try this workout I found on Pinterest. This was seriously the hardest workout I’ve ever done! I’ve never in my life done 45 squats in a row! I don’t know if that makes me sound weak or what but it’s the truth. Holy cow! If this workout isn’t HIIT I don’t know what is! I was literally shaking the whole time during the workout and after for about 15 minutes. I am so sore already everywhere so I know tomorrow morning I’m going to be hurting for sure but this is exactly what I wanted out of my workout today. I needed to feel the burn again and needed something different. It took me about 30 minutes to get through all of these. I’m sure people who are more fit could get it done a lot quicker. Everyone should try it at least once though and let me know how you did. I’d like to hear all about it. Also I’d love to see or hear about some workouts like this that you’ve found or tried and liked.

I didn’t eat breakfast this morning because I had such a bad headache but for lunch we took my Mother-in-law and my husbands grandma to lunch at 3 rivers and I had their special of the day which was a BBQ chicken sandwich so I really don’t know how healthy it was but it sure was yummy! For dinner Jake and I quickly made some tilapia pan fried in olive oil with garlic powder, seasoned salt, and pepper, steamed carrots, and rice. We had to cook so quickly because Jake took AJ to the Monster Truck show in town. He already sent me pictures and isn’t AJ so cute?! He looks so happy. He has been talking about it all week and was begging us to make it get dark quicker so they could go.

This morning I got a call from our Vet and he said that both of the bones in Chase’s lower leg are broken with a spiral fracture. He said that they have to go in surgically and place pins in and he won’t know until they’re in there if they can place wire to limit the rotation of the bones or if they’ll have to put external pins in. He’ll be getting the surgery done on Monday afternoon and will hopefully be able to come home on Wednesday evening. They said he was quiet (which is rare for him) and doing good so at least they’re taking care of him.

Thank you all for reading, commenting, and supporting me. Have a great night and a great Sunday!
xo,
Tristen

Cheat/Rest Day

Today I woke up with a huge kink in my neck. After I took the kids to school, I put a heating pad on it for a while and it didn’t help much so then I iced it and it still hurts! Long story short, I decided today is my cheat/rest day. I still watched what I ate for breakfast and lunch. For breakfast I had a Fuji apple with almond butter. For lunch I had a tuna lettuce wrap. For dinner, we had the sister missionaries over. I was going to make breakfast for dinner because I LOVE breakfast food and I don’t get to eat it often. However, I only had 3 eggs and didn’t have the time or energy to pack the kids up and go to town to get eggs so I decided to make chicken and waffles for dinner. It was so good!
Today we worked on potty training with Kennady. I just let her run around naked and take her to her princess potty we have in our living room every 10 minutes. She never has accidents but she is terrified of the potty. Her princess potty and the big potty. I thought if I put water in her princess potty it would make her want to use it but oh no! Complete opposite! She was screaming for me to take the “milk” (she calls all drinks milk) out of the potty. I even tried bribing her with suckers but it just made her mad that I wouldn’t give her one until she used her potty. So I’m at a loss as to what to do now.  Jake made it home just as we were finishing dinner and we were all so happy to see him. Kennady is so sweet and misses her daddy when he’s gone. She wouldn’t let him out of her sight all evening. The boys were also trying to get attention from him so it was pretty funny to watch him do what I do all the time. I love how much she loves him.
On a sadder note, about 2 hours ago, Noah accidentally stepped on our puppy’s, Chase, back right leg and broke it. I was able to get ahold of our vet and took him in. As soon as the Dr touched his leg he yelped so loud. So he gave him a tranquilizer so that he could feel where the break is and wrap it up until they can take x-rays tomorrow morning. He said that Chase has a spiral fracture starting at his knee joint going down his leg. It was one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen. I had to leave him there so that they can do the x-rays in the morning and try to get the surgery done tomorrow but He said that they probably won’t be able to do it until Monday afternoon due to their surgery schedule already being booked. If they do the surgery on Monday, he’ll have to stay until Wednesday. It was so sad leaving him there. I know they will take great care of him though and at least he’ll be able to have pain medicine. Noah was very sad about hurting Chase and was freaking out at first. Jake said that when I was gone he went into Noah’s room to check on him and he was still crying so as soon as I got home I went to let Noah know what the Dr said and loved on him for a bit. My other dog is a 6 year old Chihuahua named Arrow. When I came home without Chase, Arrow was looking all over for him and was following me around everywhere whining so I know he misses him and is wondering where he is. Life is definitely going to be odd for the next few days without Chase here.

 

 

Back to my workout and healthy eating tomorrow. Goodnight!

xo,

Tristen

Crushed IT!

look at my gross hair!

It never fails, every time I commit to working out something happens. The last time I made this commitment was in August. I was working out with a friend named Rachel Bossio (Crawford). I was so proud of myself because I would wake up at 4:30 am and work out with her from 5-6. Then, I pulled a muscle in my groin! I had to rest up and recover and then I got bronchitis. It lasted for a month or so. I was really down yesterday and this morning because I was feeling terrible. I went back and forth on whether or not I should push forward and do my workout or if I should take it easy. After I ate breakfast, I jumped on the elliptical and crushed my workout! (I crushed it! lol I don’t know where that came from but I got a good laugh)

I love this part of my workout!

Then, I did 6 reps of 20 crunches and stretched. I didn’t do my obliques or squats today but at least I didn’t give in to my excuses.
For breakfast this morning I had malt-o-meal with 1/2 tbsp. butter and 1 tbsp. brown sugar.
For lunch I had a salad again with spinach, lettuce, apples,cucumbes, tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. so stinkin good!
For dinner I made tacos. My kids have been begging me for them. To make them healthier, I used lean ground turkey instead of ground beef and I baked the tortillas instead of frying them. I left them in the oven for too long the first time and burnt them so I had to do it again and I still left them in for a bit too long. They were still really good! I also made Spanish rice. When we would have tacos for dinner when I was little, my mom would make her a tostada and would just put sour cream and salt on it. I started doing it as well and I love it. I have to have it every time I have tacos so that was my cheat today.

I only drank 5- 24 oz bottles of water today.

After I did my workout, laundry, organized our linen closet, and put Kennady and AJ down for a nap, I spent most of the rest of the day resting. The kids didn’t have school today because of parent teacher conferences. I went to Noah’s PTC at 4:30. His teacher is so nice and really cares about him which is nice because sadly, there are a lot of teachers and adults who know Noah’s reputation and make snap judgements of him or don’t have any patience with him. He was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 4 years old and we have had him on a lot of different medicines since then and we take him to counceling and all that. He has come a looong way since then and I am very proud of him. He got straight A’s in his academics. His behavior portion of his report card was and always is where he struggles. He is way above where he needs to be with his testing and is in gifted. He is a very smart boy and has so much potential! I just hope he realizes it for himself. If anyone has experience with children with ADHD and has suggestions for me, I’d appreciate it. My husband and I have tried everything we can think of to help him with his behavior and we just don’t know what to do to help him excel in that area. Noah is so proud of his bracelets that he made!

 

One of AJ’s chores is to feed and water the dogs. Kennady loves to help him so I tried to get a picture of them working together.



I finished one of my V-day wreaths today and will hopefully finish the other one tomorrow. I love how it turned out and yes, I got the idea from pinterest because I’m addicted to pinterest.

 

 

 

 

My sister pointed out to me that I didn’t say much about where I got my Valentine’s day décor that I posted yesterday so I’m going to repost those pictures.

I found this heart garland on Pinterest last year and finally made it.

I got these mini milk bottles with this chicken wire box from save-on-crafts.com last year to use for my daughter’s first birthday party.

I got the white milk bottle, the pink jar, and the red hearts from hobby lobby and I’ve had the red vase for a long time.

The industrial style light is from Target, the wooden heart with the bird and the 3 wicker hearts are from hobby lobby

The 3 little vases are from Target’s dollar section and they were each just $1! The clear milk bottle is from Hobby Lobby and again, I’ve had the red vase forever.

 

 

I love the final product! After decorating for Valentine’s day, I think I should warn my husband that I’m going to be decorating for every holiday from now on!

Goodnight everyone and TGIF! Enjoy!

xo,

Tristen



 

Feeling yuck-o

Today was tough! I still didn’t get to sleep at a decent hour last night and I really think the lack of sleep is catching up with me because I was EXHAUSTED this morning!!! My bed seemed extra comfy and I sooo didn’t want to get up! AJ had peed the bed in the middle of the night again so on top of not being able to fall asleep, I also had to take care of that and had a hard time getting back to sleep. Once I got up and got going though I was fine. Today when I did my 30 min HIIT cardio I decided to listen to The Book of Mormon on my phone instead of my usual music. I really think I’m going to do that from now on. I felt great afterwards, both physically and spiritually.

Clearly I’m not a photographer

I saw a post from someone today that ran 6 miles in 30 min. I hit 1.7!!

I again did 6 reps of 20 crunches, 5 reps of 20 oblique twists with 5 lbs, 3 sets of 20 squats with 5 lbs. Whew! My inner thighs are feeling those squats today and my abs hurt so good. Of course I did a lot of stretching after all that as well.

I’ve always been terrible about eating breakfast and I completely forgot to eat this morning. Yikes! I was trying to finish up my V-day décor crafts so I could post them tonight but…. I didn’t so I’ll have to post it tomorrow.
For lunch I ate a yummy salad with lettuce, spinach, carrots, cucumber, celery, tomatoes, bell peppers, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil.
For dinner I really didn’t feel like cooking, so we hit subway again and I had a 6″ flatbread sweet onion chicken teriyaki with spinach, jalapenos, and sweet onion sauce.
I drank 7- 24 oz bottles of water today! Yay!!
I did terrible about taking food pics today. I’ll do better tomorrow though.

So, after lunch today I was getting Kennady to sleep and my left eye started itching really bad and it felt like I had something in it so as soon as I laid her down I looked at it and the inside of my lower eyelid was sooo swollen!
I don’t know how it happened but it took forever to go away. I took my contacts out and rested my eyes with AJ and fell asleep hard!
Luckily, I didn’t sleep for long and unfortunately, neither did Kennady. When AJ woke up, he was trying to sneak by me into his room because once again he peed in my bed!!! Once Noah got home and my Grandma came over, we went to town to get PULL-UPS!!! Hooray for pull-ups! I also told the kids they could each pick out a toy. Noah got a rubber band loom (yep… now we’re on that band wagon but I’d rather him be doing that instead of playing his Kindle), AJ chose a nerf gun, and so did Kennady! I also just filed our taxes! I’m so happy that is done and over with!

On another note I’m getting sick, booo! I’m achy all over. Yes, I’m sore from my workouts still but this is different. My throat hurts, my head hurts, and like I said I’m achy so I’m so frustrated and really need input on how to adjust my workout so that I’m not killing myself and I can allow myself to get well again but still stick to some activity. Any suggestions will be great!

Ok I am super excited about all my cute V-day stuff (this is the first time in the 5 years we’ve lived here that I’ve decorated for anything but Christmas) so this is what I have so far…

 

Look for the rest on my post tomorrow! Goodnight!

xo,

Tristen

A little about me….

I realized that I haven’t really told “my story” yet so I’m going to do a bit of that in this post. I met my husband a couple weeks after I graduated high school in 2006 at a local plumbing supply store. We both grew up in the same town and graduated from the same high school however, we are 10 years apart so even though we are from a small community and knew a lot of the same people we had never met or even heard of each other. At the time we met I was 18 and he was 27. He also had a 1 1/2 year old son. He worked there until June of 2008 when he took another job at Hoerbiger (an oilfield supply company) as a machinist. He worked his way up to branch manager and in August 2011 he was offered a job as a sales man for CECO. During all this time I worked at Country Club Family Dental Care/Sundance Dental Care. I started there in October 2006 as a Scheduling Coordinator and worked my way up to Financial Coordinator. In October of 2008 they opened a third location and offered me the position of Lead Financial and Scheduling Coordinator. In June of 2010 I was offered the position of Office Manager. Just before my husband was offered the job at CECO, we found out that we were expecting another child and decided that I really needed to quit my job to stay home with the kids. Jake’s new job allowed me to do this because of the pay increase. I resigned my position as Office manager in December 2011. The down side to my husbands job is that it takes him out of town 3-5 days a week 3 weeks out of the month. This was another reason that I needed to stay at home with the kids. The reason I felt I needed to include all of that in this post is because my husband is such a hard worker and always has been. He has had some pretty big bumps in the road that held him up for a while but he never gave up and never let what people in the community said or thought about him keep him from trying and progressing. I love that about him more than I can express and I just felt that he needed to get a bit of recognition for a sec.

With all that said, Jake left to go out of town yesterday morning so my 5 year old son, AJ slept in my bed with me. *something I should also mention is that my husband had an issue with wetting the bed until he was 11 and both my 9 year old and my 5 year old have the same issue. It’s not every night and we limit liquid intake before bed, we’ve tried prescription medication, etc etc* Once again, I didn’t go to sleep until about 1 am. This time I slept straight through my 5:45 and 6:00 alarms. When my 6:30 alarm went off I freaked out and reached over to wake AJ up, because we overslept, and put my hand right in a giant puddle of urine! (btw, normally I have a HUGE supply of pull-ups for my boys to wear but we ran out…)

Ugh! I was so frustrated because all I wanted to do was get the boys up and get my workout done before I had to take them to school buuut, there were other plans in store again lol. So AJ says, “Mom, I really need a bath before I get dressed so my friends won’t know I peed the bed.” I laughed so hard because of course I was going to give him a bath but the fact that he was so concerned about his friends finding out reminded me of his sweetness. So I got him in the bath and went to wake up my 9 year old, Noah. He decided last night that he wanted to keep the puppy’s kennel in his room so that I wouldn’t want to sell him anymore (He is a 6 month old Beagle with all of his shots and not neutered…. yet. Asking what we paid $500. we have his papers as well. Just thought I’d get that out there while I’m at it) As soon as I walked into his room, I could smell it, he peed the bed as well! What the heck! So, I told him to take the dog out and take a shower. I went to wash AJ up and helped him get dried off. By the time I was done with all of that, it was 7:15 so I couldn’t get my 30 min cardio done by the time I needed to take the boys to school so I watched the Today Show until it was time to leave. As soon as I got back I set my Grandma’s medicine on the island and got on the elliptical. My daughter’s baby monitor started beeping 7 minutes into my workout but she was fine playing in her crib with her babies so I kept on going. 17 minutes into my workout my Grandma came over. She ALWAYS lets my dogs out when she comes over but today I had no clue until my husband’s step-mother (who happens to be my neighbor as well which I love) brought them back. Once I was done with my cardio I got my daughter up and got her breakfast and put cartoons on while I stretched, did my ab workouts (6 reps of 20 crunches and 5 reps of 20 oblique twists with 5 lbs) and instead of cycling motion I did 3 reps of 20 squats. I did1 more rep of crunches than the past 2 days and 2 more reps of oblique twists than the past 2 days so I was very happy at the end of the work out.

For breakfast I ate 1 Fuji apple with 2 tbsp. of almond butter

For lunch I ate a tuna lettuce wrap with tomato and cheese (we ran out of bread that was unfrozen so I didn’t do this on purpose although I’m really happy I did. Super yummy!)

I had a snack at about 2:30 of 2 clementine oranges with 2 tbsp. homemade bluecheese dressing (sounds weird but oh so good! and normally I would’ve had 6 oreos and a glass of milk lol FOOD ADDICT!!!)

For dinner my kids wanted to go to Chile’s because we were at Hobby Lobby (I did my Valentine’s day décor crafts today so they’ll be on my post tomorrow) so I got a new shrimp chipotle fresh mex bowl. It had rice and black beans, lettuce, pico de gallo, avocado, shrimp, and cheese in it. It was so dang good. I didn’t eat the cheese so I could be a little healthier.

I also drank water allll day long! I drank 6- 24 oz bottles of water that is 144 oz. If you are supposed to drink half your weight of water in oz for me it would be 80 oz so I beat that by 64 oz! I had to pee constantly, like as much or more than when I was 9 months pregnant, but I beat my goal! yay!

I have to say that when I woke up late this morning I was kind of happy because I thought I could use it as an excuse to skip the workout today but I pushed past that feeling and did the workout anyway and once again, I was so proud that I finished it. It’s the little accomplishments like that that are important. I need those little accomplishments to push me along. So expect me to tell you alllll of my accomplishments because no matter how small, it’s making me better than I was yesterday. So tomorrow when I wake up the words of a sweet friend, who just messaged me on facebook asking where my post is for today, will be my motivation,  “tomorrow is hump day! we’re half way through the first week!” Good night everyone!
XO,
Tristen

Flexibility and Commitment

Let me tell you about my night…. I went to bed at 1 am (lately I just can’t seem to get to sleep at a decent hour), at 3:30 ish our 9 year old comes and crawls into bed with us. Our 5 year old was in bed with us not too long after also. If our daughter wasn’t in a crib still, I’m sure she would’ve been in bed with us too. We do have a king sized bed but we may as well have been sleeping in a twin last night! Also, I forgot to turn my 5:45 am alarm I have set for week days off. Once that alarm went off I was up for the day. My elliptical machine is in my bedroom so I couldn’t do my workout as soon as I woke up like I had planned on. Soon I found myself catching up on shows on my DVR and feeling lazier and lazier. I need to mention that when I woke up I was SORE SORE SORE!!!! My abs are killing me and my shoulders and legs are feeling the workout I did as well and I love that feeling. However, I found myself thinking of every reason not to do my workout today. The more I thought about not working out the more disappointed I was in myself. So I decided to get going as soon as my boys woke up. I got the cardio part of my workout done by 8:45 and as soon as I was done my daughter woke up and my Grandma Zapata (my mom’s mom) was here to get her morning medicine.

-Side note: My Grandma was diagnosed in December with moderate to severe dementia. She and I are the only members of our family left in our hometown so we’ve become really close these past 6 weeks because she comes over every morning and evening for her medicine. She is so funny and is one of the highlights of my days.

My Grandma loves to talk and I really do love to listen to what she has to say but I really have to listen closely because she mumbles (because she is hard of hearing as well) and she has a pretty thick Spanish accent still AND likes to speak Spanglish! She’ll be telling me a story about something and all the sudden she’s speaking Spanish!
 I still needed to do my crunches and ab workouts so I had to take a break while she was here. Once I was able to continue my workout, I did 5 reps of 20 crunches, 3 reps of 20 oblique workout things with 5 lbs, and 2 min cycling motion on the couch with 5 lbs. I was so happy and proud of myself for seeing it through and not letting the changes to my daily schedule mess up my fitness. There are always going to be reasons not to work out but I’m trying to focus on my reasons TO workout:
1. I want to be healthy
2. I want to feel good about what I look like
3. I want to prove to myself that I can do it
4. I want to be a good example to my children of what healthy is
5. I want to relieve stress!!!!!
For breakfast I had 1/4 cup of honey strawberry greek yogurt, 1/4 cup of flax and pumpkin seed granola (which I love to snack on anyway), and 1/2 of a banana.

For lunch I had a tuna sandwich with cheese, lettuce, and tomato.

For dinner I had a 6″ flatbread sweet onion chicken teriyaki with spinach.
                 (no pic…sorry)
I know I wasn’t perfect today with what I ate but I made better choices throughout the day. I didn’t eat chips with my sandwich, I got a 6″ instead of a footlong which I could very easily devour! Also, I decided to weigh myself today and then I won’t weigh myself again until Sunday. Today I weighed 156 lbs! I lost 2 lbs!!!! Even if it is just water weight, it’s the motivation I needed to see today. Better than gaining 2 lbs of water weight in my opinion.
I just want to take a second and say thank you to everyone for your kind thoughts and comments and all of the encouragement I’ve received. I feel a lot better about putting all of this out there and really look forward to hearing about everyone else’s journeys to fitness! Nobody can stop you but you! Don’t be the reason you aren’t happy! I failed to mention I am the biggest Friends fan ever! I own every episode and have watched them all hundreds of times…. not even exaggerating a little bit. In one of the episodes Phoebe says, “I don’t want to be the reason you’re unhappy. That would just make me unhappy. And I really don’t want to be the reason I’m unhappy.” I totally agree! We each control our own happiness. Yeah crappy things happen to all of us, some more often than others but you can still choose to be happy. So get fit and be happy!
Goodnight! xo,
Tristen
PS. Also, this happened today. Terrible 2’s at 21 months yaaaaay……