Week in Review
It's been quite a week for me. All of my weeks are busy, but this one seemed especially more so and I'm not quite sure why.
The week started out awesome with my yoga classes on Monday. I won't give you a play by play, but let me just say this - I have the best yoga students ever. It seems that when my day is especially stressful, all I need to do is get on my yoga mat (and with my students) and whatever is bothering me fades away.
Tuesday was no exception. My trainer - BJ- gave me an awesome workout and promised to put me through the Crazy 8 challenge on Thursday. No excuses. (More on that later). Then another awesome class at the gym (Anytime Fitness) where I now teach on Tuesday nights.
Work has been especially busy as of late, which isn't surprising given that we're heading in the holiday season. This time of year always sees to find more inmates, more family requests of "what can I send little Johnny for Christmas" and long lost relatives doing the familial duty of attempting to find and visit the family member they'd like to forget but feel guilty about forgetting. It's quite sad actually. I'm the first line of contact for visiting the inmates so my desk has been swamped with applications, background checks and phone calls from family members w anting to know why they're denied.
Thursday found me tied in to knots and quite anxious. It was D-day...Crazy 8 Challenge day. Now, normally I don't back down from a challenge and if I say I'm going to do something, I do it. But I was making myself nauseous thinking about this challenge. What is the Crazy 8 Challenge? It is a serious of 8 moves, completed 8 times in a set - and done for 8 sets. Push ups, Jumping Jacks, Squats, Triceps Dips, Mountain Climbers, Jump Squats, Walking Lunges and Burpies. (Fitness Magazine named all of them as the best cardio/conditioning exercises). Now normally it's not a big deal ..but this challenge was timed. All of these moves/sets needed to be completed under 30 minutes. Reward? 1 month pd gym membership (successful completion) and a t-shirt (for making the attempt).
I began to wonder what in the hell I was thinking. I won't bore you with the details other than to say I have I wouldn't have done it if BJ wouldn't have pushed me. I did the challenge in 22 minutes 30 seconds. Yay me. To put in to perspective why I am pleased with it....25 yr old trainers completed it in 16:30. They're 26 yrs younger then me and they beat me by 6 minutes. Not bad for a 51 yr old with a bum knee, huh?
Friday was spent taking care of appointments all day. I had yoga with my Heritage Center seniors and had a great session with them - 22 showed up this week. I also talked with the activities director and I think that I may be going there every week - definitely to continue my yoga but to also volunteer to help them with some personal tasks such as writing Christmas cards or letters, or just sitting and visiting with them. Some of them have no family - or family is out of state - and they are lonesome. I know that I enjoy my time with the people and enjoy their company as much as they seem to enjoy mine. Who knows, someday I may be in their shoes and look forward to someone coming to visit me.
Saturday was the annual Schulz Oktoberfest. What a wonderful time that always is. My family is growing large and spread in many directions, making it difficult to get everyone together for holidays, etc. As it was, we were missing three this year - Dennis (SD), Michael (Mandan), and Wendi (Washington state). We arrived at 1:00 pm and the fun never stopped. As always, there was never enough time. But we know that we'll be back next year - 3rd weekend in October, as always.
Today all I wanted to do was sleep in, but I needed to take Ella (mother-in-law) grocery shopping. She was having a rough day and was quite unsteady on her feet and not very talkative. She declined going out to eat stating that all she wanted to do was lay down and take a nap. I totally understood that. Tom took her to the doctor this week to check out the growth/scab on her forehead. The doctor froze the growth and told her that if it wasn't better in 2 weeks that he wanted to do a biopsy on it. He told her it might be cancerous. I said, "we'll just stay positive and hope for the best." She didn't say anything but simply nodded. She said that the doctor told her she was doing good but needed to eat. No surprise there. She told me she weighs 86.5 lbs. (with clothes on.) Oh my gosh!! I'm afraid for her. Since my mother passed away, Ella has been there. She's a kind, gentle woman who worries about everyone and everything except herself. I don't know what I can do for her to help her. She's stubborn, set in her ways and refuses to accept any type of help other than our weekly grocery shopping and lunch date. I know at age 93 her days are limited and I need to brace myself, but it won't make it any easier when the time comes.
I came home and knew that if I sat down, I'd never get back up. So I scrubbed the kitchen and bathroom floors, wiped down counters, dusted, vacuumed, did two loads of laundry - put them away, packed my yoga bag for Monday and gym/yoga bag for Tuesday, made the coffee (set timer) for tomorrow, uploaded pictures to The Schulz Connection face book page, updated this blog (in process) and will now start dinner since T is home from hunting. I'm tired and I think I'll give myself permission to sit and read a book or watch a movie tonight so I am relaxed and ready to go for Monday - when it all starts over again.
The week started out awesome with my yoga classes on Monday. I won't give you a play by play, but let me just say this - I have the best yoga students ever. It seems that when my day is especially stressful, all I need to do is get on my yoga mat (and with my students) and whatever is bothering me fades away.
Tuesday was no exception. My trainer - BJ- gave me an awesome workout and promised to put me through the Crazy 8 challenge on Thursday. No excuses. (More on that later). Then another awesome class at the gym (Anytime Fitness) where I now teach on Tuesday nights.
Work has been especially busy as of late, which isn't surprising given that we're heading in the holiday season. This time of year always sees to find more inmates, more family requests of "what can I send little Johnny for Christmas" and long lost relatives doing the familial duty of attempting to find and visit the family member they'd like to forget but feel guilty about forgetting. It's quite sad actually. I'm the first line of contact for visiting the inmates so my desk has been swamped with applications, background checks and phone calls from family members w anting to know why they're denied.
Thursday found me tied in to knots and quite anxious. It was D-day...Crazy 8 Challenge day. Now, normally I don't back down from a challenge and if I say I'm going to do something, I do it. But I was making myself nauseous thinking about this challenge. What is the Crazy 8 Challenge? It is a serious of 8 moves, completed 8 times in a set - and done for 8 sets. Push ups, Jumping Jacks, Squats, Triceps Dips, Mountain Climbers, Jump Squats, Walking Lunges and Burpies. (Fitness Magazine named all of them as the best cardio/conditioning exercises). Now normally it's not a big deal ..but this challenge was timed. All of these moves/sets needed to be completed under 30 minutes. Reward? 1 month pd gym membership (successful completion) and a t-shirt (for making the attempt).
I began to wonder what in the hell I was thinking. I won't bore you with the details other than to say I have I wouldn't have done it if BJ wouldn't have pushed me. I did the challenge in 22 minutes 30 seconds. Yay me. To put in to perspective why I am pleased with it....25 yr old trainers completed it in 16:30. They're 26 yrs younger then me and they beat me by 6 minutes. Not bad for a 51 yr old with a bum knee, huh?
Friday was spent taking care of appointments all day. I had yoga with my Heritage Center seniors and had a great session with them - 22 showed up this week. I also talked with the activities director and I think that I may be going there every week - definitely to continue my yoga but to also volunteer to help them with some personal tasks such as writing Christmas cards or letters, or just sitting and visiting with them. Some of them have no family - or family is out of state - and they are lonesome. I know that I enjoy my time with the people and enjoy their company as much as they seem to enjoy mine. Who knows, someday I may be in their shoes and look forward to someone coming to visit me.
Saturday was the annual Schulz Oktoberfest. What a wonderful time that always is. My family is growing large and spread in many directions, making it difficult to get everyone together for holidays, etc. As it was, we were missing three this year - Dennis (SD), Michael (Mandan), and Wendi (Washington state). We arrived at 1:00 pm and the fun never stopped. As always, there was never enough time. But we know that we'll be back next year - 3rd weekend in October, as always.
Today all I wanted to do was sleep in, but I needed to take Ella (mother-in-law) grocery shopping. She was having a rough day and was quite unsteady on her feet and not very talkative. She declined going out to eat stating that all she wanted to do was lay down and take a nap. I totally understood that. Tom took her to the doctor this week to check out the growth/scab on her forehead. The doctor froze the growth and told her that if it wasn't better in 2 weeks that he wanted to do a biopsy on it. He told her it might be cancerous. I said, "we'll just stay positive and hope for the best." She didn't say anything but simply nodded. She said that the doctor told her she was doing good but needed to eat. No surprise there. She told me she weighs 86.5 lbs. (with clothes on.) Oh my gosh!! I'm afraid for her. Since my mother passed away, Ella has been there. She's a kind, gentle woman who worries about everyone and everything except herself. I don't know what I can do for her to help her. She's stubborn, set in her ways and refuses to accept any type of help other than our weekly grocery shopping and lunch date. I know at age 93 her days are limited and I need to brace myself, but it won't make it any easier when the time comes.
I came home and knew that if I sat down, I'd never get back up. So I scrubbed the kitchen and bathroom floors, wiped down counters, dusted, vacuumed, did two loads of laundry - put them away, packed my yoga bag for Monday and gym/yoga bag for Tuesday, made the coffee (set timer) for tomorrow, uploaded pictures to The Schulz Connection face book page, updated this blog (in process) and will now start dinner since T is home from hunting. I'm tired and I think I'll give myself permission to sit and read a book or watch a movie tonight so I am relaxed and ready to go for Monday - when it all starts over again.
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