March fitness fun

Wow. This time of the year is perfect here! Great weather, races starting up again, good times!

The boys and I took a bike/stroller ride across town. It was really fun! Jaylen had no problem doing the 8 miles!

Two of my clients signed up for the ShamROCK Your Socks Off 10k. Amy (on the left) had never done a 10k before and is training to do one in May. Alisha hasn't done one for years and hoped to set a new record.

So awesome to see these ladies complete their goal! Amy made it and did great! Alisha knocked over 10 minutes off her time and was so strong the whole time!

Such a different race for me! I stayed with them and did Alisha's favorite, 1 minute running, 1 minute walking routine. It was torture, I won't lie. But it was great to see them feel confident and able to finish their goal! It's a whole different race in the back- people cheering you on is a whole different feel. It cracked me up!

Some photos from the race photographers..

This shirt totally cracked me up..

Man, my work life has been STRESSFUL. Since Biggest Loser switched management and back to Fitness Ridge, things haven't been so great. The owners are way more involved and I just don't trust them. The communication has been really poor. People getting fired left and right, over text message hours before their shifts, miscommunications, changing classes last minute, a lot of rules and secrets that have led to a "protect yourself" environment. I hear about changes from the guests before I actually do from work. They don't give positive feedback and it's lead to a very unfulfilling work environment. I also really dislike being gone in the afternoon when Jaylen gets home from school. I feel like I need to be there and not so exhausted when I get home. 

I've been wanting to quit for months now. It's been torture. I keep adding other little jobs like, running the TRX program at the rec center, being on the race committee for Vacation Races, and finally got a job offer from Red Mountain Resort for more money, same travel time away, but on Saturday mornings with a way better work environment. I went to Fitness Ridge (who changed their name again to Movara) and told them that I was entertaining a different job offer. I explained they were the least paying out of the 5 jobs I have. They listened, said they didn't want to lose me (I had been such a reliable, great, energetic trainer, they'd do what they could to keep me), told me they'd get back to me and didn't when they said, so I felt very comfortable taking the Red Mountain job and saying farewell to Movara.

My last Boot Camp class

It was actually really sad to leave on my last day. When I first took this job I thrived off it. I felt empowered, motivated, fulfilled. It was sad to leave, realizing how far I've lost the spark there. How unfortunate it is that it's come to the point it has. I love and will miss the guests there. My managers said they were sad to see me go but were grateful I had brought to light a lot of the issues and they now felt comfortable to talk to the investors about the issues (there are MANY). It was frustrating that those above me didn't have the guts to defend our department before we all had to quit, and it took me quitting for them to feel like they could say something. I did have a very honest conversation with one of the owners and told her the reasons I was leaving. She (I THINK) heard me and expressed that she was sorry and that she'd love to keep the door open if I ever wanted to come back. I was happy about how the conversation ended, so I will stay on the sub list.

Unfortunately, some drama started my last week there when one of our long time guest, Brad (below), came up to me and said, "Michelle told me you're leaving because you're pregnant." It REALLY sent me over the edge. I told her and my manager in confidence, expressing to them that I wasn't telling anyone yet and that my family didn't even know. AND that was definitely NOT the reason I was leaving. So irritating. She even told everyone in staff meeting that was the reason. I did not leave on a good note with her, for sure!

 Oh, well.. moving on! I'm happy to be home in the afternoon with the kids and am settling into my nordic walking/stretch and pool class on Saturday mornings at Red Mountain Resort.

After my last pool class with Brad

Prego pics so far! 4-25 weeks

Sunday, February 1st  I woke up to take a pregnancy test which confirmed what we'd been hoping for- we're pregnant!

Me at week 4

Week 4

Week 9

Week 9

Week 12- clients and friends are starting to call me out

Week 14.5- April 23

I hate selfies in a bathroom, but I didn't get a chance to snap a picture for a couple weeks of my growing belly. This is May 4- week 16

Week 20- half way! June 1

July 2nd- 25 weeks:

25 weeks

Zion's Half Marathon

I was asked my a friend to be on the race committee for Vacation Races. I had been really curious about the idea of being involved in races (where people actually WANT to be active and have fun), so I was excited to join the crew. There are about 7 of us on the committee and it's a fun group. We are the grunt workers FOR SURE.

We put on the Zion's Half Marathon in March. I was in charge of gear check.  It was SO hard putting the race on, I've never been SO exhausted after a job. I was also pregnant but not telling anyone yet, so I'm sure that didn't help with the exhaustion. 

You have NO idea how much work goes into a race! We started on Thursday packing things from a storage shed into a moving truck, then at 7 am Friday morning we moved pedrail, packed and unpacked lbs and lbs and lbs of bananas (40, 20 lb boxes of bananas and oranges). Seriously, I can count at least 7 times that I moved those boxes in and out of the moving truck. Filled and hauled water containers, setup tables, gear check station, sorted bags, moved ped rail a million times.. We didn't finish until 1 am and woke up at 4 am to get everything set for race morning. We worked all morning and then took down everything we had just worked all day the day before putting up. We didn't finish until 5-6 pm, had a post race meal and meeting with everyone, then went to the storage shed and once again unloaded PED RAIL and everything again. I didn't get home until 7:30 pm on Saturday. 

It was $600 I worked my butt off for, that's for sure! Such a fun crew though to make it happen and such beautiful scenery!!

My gear check station

Ped rail loading into the storage unit. We were all so delirious by now..

Loading up those dang bananas and oranges again!

The finish!

Our post race recap- Quite the meeting spot!

We all ended up with LBS of left over bananas and oranges. We walked around the neighborhood handing them out like monkeys! Ha!

Such a eye opening experience as a runner myself. I'll be much more grateful at any race I run. Now, we're in the planning stages for the Grand Canyon Half marathon in May! I'm so excited! I haven't been there yet!

March happenings

Gavin was running around trying to find clothes. I had to snap a picture of his cute little booty.

The boy's all ready for church!

Gavin fell asleep on Aaron all safe and warm.

Aaron sent me this picture while I was at work. Aaron was working and didn't hear Gavin for 10 minutes so he went to go check on him, and found him asleep, without his pants on, on the floor. His guess was he went potty, went to change his underwear and pants and fell asleep mid task. Gavin just giggled when he asked Gavin about it later and showed him the picture. Such a silly boy!

Watching Big Hero 6 with cousins

Jaylen's first soccer game! He enjoys all the friends on his team!

 Gavin is all about the zip line at my friend Elizabeth's house! They made it super fast, so Gavin loved cruising down. Jaylen was too afraid to try!

This little note Jaylen gave me cracked me up. I love my little mail man, I mean boy.

Jaylen got this ninja duck from school a couple months ago and he is CRAZY about him. Like, he's now part of the family crazy. He has built a whole neighborhood of houses for him out of old boxes, takes him everywhere he goes in his pocket, gives him his own portion of food at meals, takes him swimming with him, tucks him into bed, talks to him, and gives him nose kisses. It's pretty funny the things he gets so attached to!

I found a whole slew of duck selfies on my phone from Jaylen.

Gavin went into timeout for getting sassy and when I went back in, he was asleep on the couch!

Playing on the swing with Daddy.

Jaylen's first grade soccer team- the Grizzlies

We snuggle and watch shows a lot in our bed at night. Gavin usually wipes out.

Aaron sent me this while I was at work. He went in to do work on his Ipad in the playroom to be around Gavin when he played. Gavin loved having Aaron nearby while he played. He crawled up on the couch and feel asleep all snuggled up to Aaron. SO SO sweet!

Merilee visits over Gavin's birthday weekend!

We've been lucky enough that Merilee has been able to come see us a few days earlier than her conference in SLC, which happens to be around Gavin's birthday the past 2 years! So fun to have her in town!

She has the touch with Jaylen! Also a regular, late night therapy- ha!

Birthday crepes on Sunday morning.

 Gavin loved decorating and being part of his cake decoration. Grandma had some skittles to put on top!

 

One of Gavin's favorite things- COOKIES!!

Gavin got a neat marble toy from Grandma! The boys love it!

Kneader's french toast, bowling and the park was our birthday celebration for Gavin on Monday before saying bye to Grandma. Gavin was adorable throwing his own bowling ball!

We did cake on Sunday evening, March 8th. I realized it was the 10th year anniversary of my Dad's passing. So bitter sweet to be thinking about my dad, Clifford Eugene on my little Gavin Eugene's birthday. I wish Gavin could have met his Grandpa he was named after.  It's hard to not share these precious moments with him, but know he's watching over us.

GAVIN! Oh my goodness. We LOVE this little boy. He has the BEST cheesy smile, the cutest little booty, the sweetest and silliest little boy voice right now, loves everything dealing with his buppy (brother), loves to eat constantly (anything unhealthy and treat like), especially is into COOKIES, loves tucking only the very front of his shirt into his pants, and still constantly pees his bed at night. He's such a little ham, and cracks us up all the time! I can't believe our sweet boy is FOUR!

Aaron keeps a little note going on his phone of funny stories from the boys. Here are a few from Gavin:

He brought me some flowers from outside and with the sweetest voice said, "Here are some flowers for you mom. You deserve these flowers Mom. I love you." and gave me a kiss on the cheek. It was the cutest thing EVER! He's getting so snuggly and SO sweet with his emotions!

We tell Gavin he's cute and he says, "I'm not cute, I COOL!"

Getting into bed, saying "that makes sense" when Aaron said he'd snuggle him because mommy gave him a piggy ride to bed.

While giving Jaylen a pep talk in the playroom on the importance of doing chores, and sometimes there's things in life you HAVE to do even if you don't like to, Aaron said that if Mommy and Daddy didn't work, we wouldn't have a place to live and that we'd live under a bridge. Gavin, listening at the door, says running into the kitchen, "Oh no!! We don't have a house and will live under a bridge!!!"

I was playing with Gavin in the river by our house and Gavin drew a smile face in the sand. He tapped on my leg and said, "I made a smile face because I always smile when I'm thinking that I love you."

Gavin during a prayer said "Thank you that we can eat some piggy," when we were having ribs.

Gavin has started helping Jaylen with the dishes. He exclaimed, "Dishes are fun for me!"

Gavin told Aaron, "Mommy just is the cutest, you're the beautifulist and Buppy is the coolest."

Reminding Gavin to try new foods cause they might taste gooooodd (a song from Daniel Tiger), Gavin breaks out in song singing, "You gotta try new foods but I don't wike diiissss."

In prayer, Gavin said "Thank you that we can burp and toot and laugh."

Aaron took the boys to go get a hundred donuts for Young Men's activity night. Gavin really wanted some of those donuts so in our dinner prayer while Aaron was gone he prayed, "Please help Daddy bring home donuts."

We pulled up to Sonic to get a milkshake. We asked what the boy's wanted. Gavin replies, "Can I only choose one??"

Trying to get Gavin to sit down and listen to us before FHE he said, "I don't want those options, BLAH, BLAH BLAH!"

I came back from getting groceries and said, "I'll tell you what I'm tired of, I'm tired of being hungry." IMMEDIATELY Gavin chimes in with "THAT'S RIGHT!"

Gavin wanted some chapstick in the car, so he said "Mom, my wips (lips) aren't that beautiful."

This morning while playing outside Gavin yelled from the trampoline to me, "Your baby is making your belly so fluffy!!"