Saturday, March 29, 2008

for the love of exercise... haha

So I've been slightly depressed with the weight gain and body changes Baby Bob has brought on. I know this is normal but I've worked so hard to get into shape after having Izzy that knowing I'm going to have to do it all over again is no fun. I've even been slghtly depressed that because I was so sick at first, I was not able to run or exercise period and now it's hard to get back into the routine. And knowing that starting a running routine after weeks and weeks of not plus an enlarged stomach reminds me that it will not be easy and that I'll pretty much have to go back to scratch... that's really depressing when I an average run was at least 8 miles a day. :( But alas...

I've been looking into some pregnancy workout DVDs (yes... I know I'm weird but I really do enjoy working out to videos) and at first all I could find here were yoga/pilates videos... not exactly what I was looking for at this point. So I got on Amazon.com and found more of what I'm looking for and am patiently waiting it's arrival. I actually cannot even remember the name but it was reviewed well so I hope it's what it says. Which gives me a better attitude and hope that it's still not too late. LOL And then I got an email from Billy Blanks and when I checked out his website... lo and behold there is a post-natal DVD!!!! I can't tell you how excited I was... I LOVE tae bo. They also have a new series of videos out that I told Mike I'd like for my birthday. :) I just finished reading some reviews on the postnatal video and one lady said she was even able to use it during pregnancy so I'm thinking I may go ahead and purchase this one as well.

On top of finding all those videos, Mike and I were talking and since this will be my last baby (unless God has other plans) I asked him if I could hire a personal trainer (well of course depending on price) for even just one session. There's a fitness center in Sai Kung that promotes itself as personal training/etc so I'm going to look into that. I didn't have problems losing weight after Izzy but I still had those flabby arms and thighs that I thought maybe a few sessions with a trainer would give me some wisdom on how to build the muscle properly.

So it gets me excited because I love to exercise and I love being in shape... and it's nice to know I already have a plan rather than trying to figure something out when the time comes like I did after Izzy.

But anyway.... it's just something that I've been thinking about and getting excited about.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Praise the Lord, Hallelujah

Izzy learned a new song today and I think she likes it....




We had a wonderful day today... celebrating our risen King, having a nice lunch out, taking a short rest and then having friends over for a BBQ. (The only negative about today was that I forgot to take any pictures so tom we'll all get dressed up again and take a nice Easter photo. Haha) This is only the beginning to a great week. I'm still off until friday so Mike is taking the week off as well and we have plans for Disney and some hiking. We just pray the weather clears up a bit.

May your Easter be filled with the Hope that Jesus brings!

Friday, March 21, 2008

I want to ABIDE in YOU, Jesus

"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." John 15:5

I celebrated my birthday just before moving to HK and my MIL gave me this great book called, "Breath Prayers for Mothers." Inside she wrote, "Brief prayers are very important. They can help you keep a calm heart during hectic days. Motherhood is wonderful but can also be very tiring." I had only been a mom for 2 months so I was still living on excitement, adrenaline, and lack of sleep (LOL) but it didn't take long to realize how accurate her words were. I don't know how many times, sitting in the bathroom for a moment of sanity or just quickly in the midst of the day, I've reached for this book and found the perfect verse/prayer... to express my heart to God. Currently the one that is remaining with me is: 'I want to abide in YOU, Jesus.' There's been a lot of things going on where it's been easy for me to pity myself or get down or just want to give up but this verse/breath prayer just constantly reminds me that I need to continually die to self and put God first.

Especially during this Easter season. It's so easy to just say, "Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross to save me' and to get stagnant in your spiritual walk to where Easter is just another holiday (even though you know it should be special.) But I pray that we can make time to reflect on what really happened, why it happened, and how that affects our lives. Mike is doing a special youth service right now that I wish I could be at (it's a public holiday so Joan has the day off) but I've been praying that it makes an impact on our students to understand the amazingness (I know.. not a word) of our God and the sacrifice He made for us. I feel sometimes that now that I'm a parent, God's sacrifice of His son is more real to me and just hits me in a different way.

Okay... we have a fun day planned tomorrow so I need to clean up and I want to read a bit before heading to bed. Have a blessed Good friday.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

A day out with Mom


Izzy refused to let me take any pictures on our day out but I managed to get her to look at the camera once for one of those... take the pic with my arm stretched out. It's not the most flattering of pics, but I like it. :)
Here's Izzy checking out the monkeys.
We dyed our eggs on Wed. Izzy was more interested in putting the stickers on but that's okay. We still had fun.

These two pictures are Izzy and her flowers. We went to the nursery on Mon night and we all picked out some flowers to plant. Izzy from the moment we got there chose these. It was weird to see her stick with one plant each time we asked her what she wanted but I'm glad she likes them. She has carried them everywhere. They sit with her on the couch, she brings them to the dinner table, she even keeps them with her in bed. We keep telling her that we will plant them this weekend... I hope she's not too disappointed. :)



Well yesterday started out rough... I planned to buy some used DVD's off and ebay type site here in HK but I was just going to meet the lady at an mtr stop that's on the island (a good bit away from where we are). So I decided to make a day out of it... picking up the movies, meeting my mom group at the Botanical Gardens/Zoo, stopping at Bumps to Babes, and just enjoying the day. Well at 9:50, I got a text saying the lady couldn't meet me but it was too late, I was already in Hung Hom. Then I got a phone call from the only mom who decided to meet today saying she wasn't going to be able to come. Poor Izzy was bummed that Kiki wasn't coming but she was still focused on seeing gorillas so I couldn't let her down. We headed out and stopped at Bumps to Babes first in an attempt to find some reasonably priced maternity clothes. Izzy had fun riding around the store on a scooter while I unsuccessfully looked at clothes. (I cannot believe the prices here! Nothing is less than about forty dollars. But alas...) We did manage to find some swim diapers and of course that made Izzy's day. :) We used the last swim diaper on Wed and I told her that she was going to have to learn how to use the potty if she wanted to swim and well that just wasn't an option in her mind. No she is not potty trained but I'm not stressing over it either. She understands everything but is just not willing so when the day comes.. I'm just convinced (or just praying) that it will be super easy. Then we headed off to what HK calls a zoo... it's quite pathetic in my mind but at least it's got some animals to look at. Sadly though, all the animals were sleeping. Izzy was bummed and started screaming at the monkeys to 'wake up and come down here.' It was cute but our afternoon at the zoo only lasted about 30 minutes as Isabella just got bored. So I called Mike to share our disappointing zoo visit and he suggested heading to the Peak and having Burger King for lunch. I much prefer BK over McD's any day but the only ones in HK are at the Peak (too far away for a regular trip) and the other at the airport. So anyway... I thought it would be fun and thought Izzy would enjoy the tram ride. We got to the peak, saw some live bunnies, ate some BK and then just headed back down. The day was hazy, cloudy, rainy... just ugly so there was no view and there's not much but shops up at the peak. But anyway... we had a good time. We then took the tram back down and went to Toys r Us where I got some toys for the egg hunt and Izzy played on the outdoor toys.

At dinner that evening, Joan and I were talking about small groups (benefits/challenges, ect) and then somehow we got to talking about her time while she was in the Philippines waiting for her visa. She shared with me that while she was home she was able to continuously share her faith with her sister and neighbor and before returning to HK, they both accepted Christ! How awesome! But what's funny is that her visa took a long time to get approved and we all were wondering what was going on and getting a bit frustrated but it was so cool to say... 'well that's why you couldn't come any sooner. God was working and using you. He had to wait until they were ready to accept Christ.' So it was worth waiting for that visa!!!

I think that just totally made my day. Don't get me wrong, I had a blast having the day to spend with Izzy and doing some different things but hearing how God was/is at work is so very exciting!


Monday, March 17, 2008

It's Official....

I gave birth to a fish... not a little girl. :) Granted it is about 73 degrees outside... but it has just started to warm up in the past 2 weeks after a series of freezing forty/50ish temps (which is very cold for HK). There's no way most people would even think about swimming. Most people are still wearing pants and long sleeves and coats. But last friday a few girls were just getting their feet wet in the pool as we were headed into town and of course Izzy just begged to swim so I told her that next week we could put our feet in. Well today was pretty nice out and she asked again so we walked over to the pool, put our feet in and almost instantly she started begging for her swimsuit. I tried to get her to go in enough to get her belly wet (thinking that if she did that she would think twice) but no... it just made her want to swim more. So I gave in. She got her swimsuit on and had a blast for about an hour. Mike and I were just amazed that she was not cold at all. But I guess it doesn't matter what the temp is for a fish... as long as they're in water. And she just loved it. Mike and Joan on the other hand spent the day cleaning up our yard and it looks amazing. I'll have to see if I can find some before pictures to show you what they've been doing but it looks great and in about a half-hour we're going to the nursery to pick out some flowers to replace what has been taken down. I never imagined in a million years we'd be doing yard work in HK. Just one more thing to be thanking God for His blessings.







Sunday, March 16, 2008

1st BBQ




We had an awesome day today! Church was great... the youth led worship and did a fabulous job. I was really quite proud of how well they did and the group that led today was a totally new group (aside from a few singers.) We had Stuart Briscoe with us this morning and he spoke on what the 'church' is. He's a great speaker and I enjoyed him a lot. I felt like I had the chance to talk to some of the younger girls before Sunday school started which is something that doesn't happen very often so I was thankful for that too. After church Jill, ryan, and Hunter came over for pizza and just to relax. It was awesome to just sit on our rooftop and chat... it was a gorgeous day out too. Just as they left the college group came over after their hike to hang out and BBQ. It was really fun to have them over to. This is a new ministry and I was excited to meet some of new people. Plus, I just really enjoy having guests over and since they offered to do all the cooking and cleaning up... well who wouldn't pass that up. :)

Izzy enjoyed having all her 'friends' over. She was really awesome today considering an early morning and no nap. She warmed right up to all the college girls and enjoyed her first chance to BBQ. She loves these mini-hotdogs so we let her BBQ some at the end. She's always fun to pick up after the children's service or Sunday school because she'll tell me what song they sang, etc.. but today when I asked her what song they sang she said, " Jesus Loves Me" and then proceeded to sing it. i was quite impressed with her memory of all the words. Then she was telling me: "Jesus this and Jesus that." It was cute as always.

Now... I'm ready to hit the hay. Tomorrow is supposed to be the last nice day for about a week so I have great plans. I'm just thankful that I didn't get called into work like my fellow teacher did. :)

Have a blessed Sunday!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

15wks 5days



Moms are not lying when they say that each pregnancy is different. Most of my pregnancy with Izzy was easy. I was blessed in that I didn't really suffer morning sickness, I didn't have much back/leg pain, ect... However, Baby Bob has not let me forget about him (no we don't know what it is but since we're using Bob it's just easier to say he). I've never felt so miserable on such a consistent basis. It has only been just over a week that I haven't spent a good bit of the day in the bathroom. At my last appt, I begged the Dr for some medicine, explained that I couldn't leave my classroom to puke, and that I was nervous about the health of the baby because I could not keep anything down and he gave in. He only gave me two weeks worth of meds, I've managed to stretch it and I figure that now I've been given it, it won't be hard to get more if I need it. Though I think I'm starting to get better on my own, the meds have really, really helped. In fact, I haven't puked since last Sunday and I've only had one day were I was really not feeling well. So let me just tell you how much my life has improved. I'm finally excited about this pregnancy, I'm starting to enjoy my job a bit more, I've got the energy to play outside with Izzy, etc... you get the idea. Life is good.

So I finally got around to take a picture of my growing belly. I cannot believe how big and how quickly I'm getting big. My clothes already do not fit and I'm begging for maternity clothes. And I'm blown away too because I've only really been eating well the past week. But alas... here I am in all my glory. Haha

I haven't felt the baby move yet, we don't have any names, we have no preference as to what gender we have and we really don't have any guesses. I honestly haven't thought much of anything about this baby because I've just been trying to survive each day. I feel a bit guilty about that but I'm sure as I continue to get healthy, I'll get more and more excited.

But I just want to thank everyone for their prayers because they have been felt. Thank you so much!

Monday, March 10, 2008

Spring Izzy




I just heard the sweetest words come out of Izzy's mouth without any prompting. She said, 'Let's pray for lunch. Dear Jesus, thank you for this lunch, thank you for this party, help momma feel better and daddy too. Thank you for lunch... be with momma. Amen.' I wanted so badly to get it on video but I also didn't want to miss a word she said.

Today started roughly (though simply because I was tired and didn't want to go to work) but ended up amazing. There's a pretty bad flu going around HK right now... several little children have died from it so it being HK and the whole SArS thing in the past... they're very careful about things so they cancelled school for all primary students and teachers until after Easter break!!! Wohoo! That means an extra week and 2 days off for me! Though I didn't know this until I trekked the 1.15minutes to school to turn around and do the same to go home. I thought about different things I could do but HK is not alive at 8am so I just came home. We've had a fun day playing outside. The weather is just gorgeous and if you know Izzy, she LOVES being outside. We had tea parties, golfed, read, she even mopped the stones and pretended to ride a horse. I'm constantly amazed at the creativity of this kid. :)

I tried desperately to find a trip for us since I have this extra time off but with Easter, Mike can't easily get off and all flights to the East Coast were totally booked. It was a bit disappointing but if the weather stays as is, we'll have lots of fun playing outside and doing some things that are more enjoyable when it's cooler out... like Botanical Gardens, Stanley, Disney of course, and some hiking. Mike will take a few days off after Easter to have some family time so we're looking forward to that.

We just pray that no one in our house catches even a smidge of this sickness going around.

But anyway... I just really wanted to show this picture of Izzy. Because of how sick I've been I haven't taken any pictures until last week and she's just grown and changed so much.