No! Its already starting to get busy as we get back into the swing of school and our normal schedule. I've been grateful to have Felicity home as she has been helping a lot to keep Jude occupied during the day. He loves to hang out with Felicity. This week she took him for a pop, out to lunch at Chipotle, and entertained him in her room while she crocheted. He is really going to miss Sissy when she leaves for college next month.
Speaking of Felicity she has been holed up in her room working on her latest project. She's crocheting a King of the Hill inspired blanked and finished Peggy and Bobby Hill this week. They look great. I love that she took something I taught her the basics of and has expanded her skillset and made it her own.
So, as I may have mentioned a couple of blog posts ago I am now down 120 pounds and have another thirty to lose to get to my goal weight. I've been doing great at the eating part and I've been running six days a week, but I knew I wanted to add some different, more varied fitness to my routine. Last week I signed up for a membership at Orange Theory Fitness and took my first class on Monday evening. I've always avoided going to a gym because I feel like I don't know what to do. This is a group class with a variety of coach-led exercises that include rowing, treadmill interval work, weights, and body-weight exercise. I was a little apprehensive, but I had a great time. It was fun and hard and when I was done I felt great. I'm hoping this will help me through the last push to the end and also help me to put some of my wobbly, stretched out bits back where they belong. My two mile run on Tuesday morning was pretty rough since I was still soar from my Monday evening workout. I went back at 5AM on Wednesday and again on Friday evening. I'm proud of the progress I'm making.
I worked on Wednesday and in the evening Phil and I went to the temple. It's been hard to be as consistent as we used to be since Jude was born, but we're trying to remedy that. Did I tell you about my sprint board? I don't think I did. I have been feeling so overwhelmed by the shear number of projects that I want to do along with all the maintenance chores that need to happen. I found that week after week I wasn't really getting anywhere because so many of the projects are so large (like FINALLY getting the house painted) or not knowing which project to prioritize. I was thinking about it and an obvious idea came to me. I organize people's work for a living. I literally take a program and break it down into bite-sized pieces that can be accomplished in a two week interval and take on the work in order of customer priority, and logical progression. Why can't I do that at home? So I did. I created a backlog of work that I know I want to accomplish, broke it up into ten "epics" (i.e House Exterior, Front Yard, and Personal Projects) and then broke that work up into subcategories called "features" and then broke that work up into "stories" that can be done in two weeks or less. I also created a sprint board to track the work. I know its a little over the top, but we've been using it and I have actually made a lot of progress on projects over the last three weeks. I'm very goal and list oriented and so closing all my stories is a great driving force for me to get stuff done. The board also lets Phil see what tasks we've prioritized this week...maybe it will reduce the frustration of me seeing him on the tractor doing something that is inconsequential in my mind instead of helping with something that has really been bugging me. We get to decide what we're going to work on in the next two weeks and those tasks get priority. We also purposefully picked tasks from several different areas or "epics" (i.e. pulling weeds in the front, but also finishing painting the living room in the house). Long story short, I've put a "go to the temple" story on the board so that we can make sure to get to the temple at least once every two weeks. We enjoyed time at the temple on Wednesday and then had dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse, it was fabulous. Guess what else is a story on my scrum board? Writing my blog each week!
Thursday we were able to have the missionaries over for dinner and that was nice. Jude wanted to sit right between them and talk their ears off.
We're still working on potty training. One of the big hurdles is that at some point in the past Jude got constipated and had a painful bowel movement and now he equates pooping with pain and holds it for as long as he can (which is a long time, we're talking days) which in turn makes the problem worse. Anyway, we tried some entertainment on the potty to try and help him relax when we knew he needed to go. It didn't work. But here's a cute picture of our efforts. Phil worked a few hours of overtime on Friday and I had a hair appointment and did the neighbor's grocery shopping along with our own. In the evening when he got home he came into town with me while I had my third class at Orange Theory and when I was done he took me out for fajitas at El Sur and then to the movies to see "Twisters". We had such a great time and the movie was awesome, I really enjoyed it.
Phil was back at work on Saturday and I got up early to tackle some of our tasks outside. Its so stinking hot you pretty much have to get all your outside chores done before 8AM. Felicity went on a date Saturday morning, a hike, so she wasn't there to help, but Helen and Arlo each took an hour long turn helping me outside while the other watched Jude. Arlo enjoyed driving the tractor while we pulled up some creosote bushes in the front yard. I don't think I've ever had him hug me and say "thanks mom" after making him do chores before!
I was grateful Phillip got to be home for church on Sunday. I filled in for Felicity as chorister in our ward since she was singing in a quartet in the singles ward. Jude fell asleep in the car on the way to church and Phil somehow managed to keep him asleep through most of Sacrament meeting. That was a first! It was so peaceful! We ended up staying for a "linger longer" after the church block and the boys enjoyed some ice cream.
Jude really cracked me up on the way home. He was demanding that we roll the window down in the car and I told him "no" that it was too hot outside. His reply is so typical Jude. He said "no Mom, its cold out" (at this point he reaches out and puts his hands to the glass) "brrr...don't you see those penguins?" I look at him with a raised eyebrow. "Penguins?" "Yeah, its so cold I saw penguins on the side of the road, please roll my window down". He's manipulative, imaginative, but manipulative. When we got home Phil asked if I wanted to take a trip to Buckeye with him. He had purchased a couple of bows and sold one to his friend Will and one to his brother-in-law Ed. I said sure and we took an impromptu road trip to Buckeye. We enjoyed visiting at each of our stops, maybe a little too much because we didn't get home till after midnight. I'm preparing for another busy week of work and school and getting ready to drop Felicity off at college. Wish us luck!
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