New Years Resolution

It appears I have some followers on this here blog and I received quite a bit of heckling over the holidays for not updated it. So, here is a quick update on some of my thoughts and maybe once I get this post finished I will post a new Christmas picture or two. I am sitting here typing on my new fancy laptop watching the Alamo bowl while I search the web for some inspirational organizational ideas. Since we moved here to SA and bought my Baby Boot Camp franchise I haven't been able to fall into a groove. I just feel so unorganized in all aspects of my life. My goal for this new year of 2012 is to get organized. More specifically I want to organize this toy store the kids got for Christmas; I want to plan out a years worth of budget; I want to plan out Tim and I's entire race schedule for the year to coincide with some overdue visits to our out of state families; I want to create a marketing plan for baby boot camp and get the word out there; I want a minimum of 10 moms who are regulars; I want to better organize my days; I want to make exercise a priority again and lose about 20 lbs of "baby weight" (haha!!!). The reason behind all of these goals is to be able to relax and spend a little more time enjoying my family. I decided to be a stay at home mom for a reason-and that reason was to be with my children, enjoy my children, teach my children and be the sole influence on them. Right now I don't feel like I am doing this well enough and the time I have with them before they are off to school is so short that I want to take more advantage of the opportunity and live in the moment with my beautiful boys.

And here is a toast to all those resolutions out there. May they all be achieved with ease and grace. May you all be blessed with happiness, health and lots of laughter! Happy New Year!

Brady checking out his Gingerbread family from Great Granny Dee

The Mann fam with Grandpa Mann (visiting from IN) and Nana (visiting from KS)

Papa and Brady listening to the Christmas Bears reading of Twas the night before Christmas

Grayson and Mimi on Christmas morning. Grayson is stuffing his face with the half eatin cookie left from Santa. That boy has a sweet tooth!

Busy Days

Wow, what a busy month we have had! I started off the month at a conference for Baby Boot Camp in Sarasota Florida. We originally were going to go as a family and make it a vacation, but we couldn't make the finances work, so only I went. Tim kept saying have fun on vacation, to which I scoffed, I'm not going on vacation, I'm going to a work conference! However, after flying on an airplane, checking in to the hotel and heading out to the cafe by the pool to have a sandwich and a beer and doing all of this quickly/smoothly and stress free without having to lug around 2 car seats, a stroller, worry about snacks, potty breaks, diaper changes and who's about to melt down...as I sat there in the lovely breeze soaking in the sun halfway bored, I thought, ok, maybe I am on vacation! It turned out to be a fantastic weekend! I was feeling really down about the business not taking off and was struggling with my time management now that I have 2 kiddos and trying to still provide them the educational and emotional interaction they need each day and still get the work done that I need to to make the business successful. We had 3 days full of really informative presentations-in a conference room that looked out over the beach-and 3 days of exercise workshops to refresh my classes-all these workshops/exercise classes were done at 7 am on the beach-it was beautiful! And to top it all off my fellow Baby Boot Camp owners are a great group of women who had nothing but encouraging words and great ideas to share with everyone. I came home feeling totally rejuvenated and hit the ground running! I have already made leaps and bounds in improvements. Plus, it was nice to get away from the kids and all my home/mom responsibilities for a few days!
Then the following weekend we had our "last" bike event of the season. I say "last", because Tim just volunteered to be a bike medic for the Livestrong 90 mile ride in Austin on the 24th. He just signed up for this a few days ago. Hmmm....me and the boys might volunteer to help out at a break point or start line stuff. We'll see. I would love to ride in it, but it is another fund raising ride and we agreed to only do one of those per season and last weekend we did the MS 150. But, since he is a volunteer he doesn't have to pay or raise funds, he is donating his time instead. Yeah, rough gig! So anyway, last weekend we did the MS 150 which is a bike ride starting at the Alamo Dome downtown San Antonio and riding 70 miles (with a 100 mile Century option-which of course we took!) out to New Braunfels on Day 1, then a 60 mile ride back to San Antonio on Day 2. Last year my dad and I rode it and it poured the entire first day! It rained so much that there was flooding in New Braunfels and they closed the century option, then canceled Day 2! It was absolutely miserable! But this year was wonderful! We had perfect weather and the ride was organized very well. Since it was a charity ride there weren't any timing chips and places weren't awarded. But we rode very well and finished day 1 in about 5 hours ride time. Unfortunately my Dad had to fly out to a conference on Sunday morning so it was just Tim and I riding on Day 2. We did even better though on Day 2! It was an awesome ride! We averaged 18 miles/hour and were done by 11:30 am! It was great! It was a great ride to finish out the season on...I am getting ready to run a 5 miler though the end of October, so the race season is completely finished. Just the big ones for now. Hopefully a baby bump will be getting in my way soon! :)

Team "Mannhandlers"

The Wurst Tri Ever

In the pool, ready for the swim!

Heading out of Transition #1 and off to the 14 mile bike ride.

Tim in Transition #2 after the bike getting ready for the run.Tim heading out for the 3.4 mile run.Me heading out for the run.

Yay, almost done! Time to run!


Tim coming across the finish line. Yay Tim!




This was pretty tricky here-this looks like it's the end, the finish line is to my left, but no, there was still a 1/2 mile loop around the finish!




First time triathletes-in our "super suits". We got one piece tri suits for the big day. They are not very appealing and chubsters like me, but they sure do work well!

We did it! Tim and I completed our first ever Triathlon! And it was not the "worst" tri ever as the title would lead you to believe-it was great! The tri was held in New Braunfels which is home to the annual German Wurst Fest where beer flows like water and kiolbassa and kraut are on every corner and that is why it was named the Wurst tri ever. We started off the day arriving in New Braunfels at 6 am to get our transition area set up and our bodies marked with our numbers. The boys spent the night with my folks, but got to the race site a little bit before it started so that we could give hugs and kisses and the boys could see the big start! The swim was a 400 meter swim which we swam in a 50 meter pool, so they had to do a time trial start, starting an athlete every 10 sec. There was about 300 participants and the idea was you were supposed to start according to your number, but that didn't really happen, people just kinda bunched together and started when they wanted to. I convinced Tim to shuffle up towards the front, so we got started relatively quickly. The swim was a little chaotic to me and I kept getting kicked by breast strokers and lollygagers and the end of each lane, so it really threw off my rhythm and made me a bit slower on the swim. Once he remembered to put on his goggles (about 25 meters into the swim!! He was a nervous wreck!), Tim did well on his swim, finishing in 10:34 and I finished in 11:26. Then we had a little jog over to the transition area and it was time for the bike. I was psyched for the bike ride! We had ridden the course the weekend before, so I knew what to expect and of the 3 disciplines, riding is my thing. They also were giving out the King and Queen of the hill distinction for the fastest one to climb the very first hill of the ride-about an 11% incline! People were strugglin! Me on the other hand danced right up it! I wanted that Queen of the hill so bad! Plus Tim has had us riding so many hills this summer, that this was pretty normal! Unfortunately I didn't get Queen of the hill, but I did come in 3rd for the females! Waahhhooo! I cruised thru the 14 mile ride and it felt great! I finished up in about 48:19 (average speed of 18.6 mph) and Tim finished up the ride in 49:28 (average speed of 18.1 mph), which means I beat Tim in the ride! Heehee!!! We then made it thru the transition pretty quickly and then on to the 3.4 mile run. The run went well. I wanted to walk many times, but didn't let myself. I even made it up the one killer hill while running-although it probably didn't look much like I was running though, more like shuffling up the hill! Haha! I finished up the run in 30:34 and Tim finished up in 24:11. Not too shabby for our first tri! I ended up placing 4th in my age group and 18th overall for the females. Tim finished 10th for his age group and 56th overall for the men. We can't wait to do another one! Unfortunately we waited to do our first one at the end of the season, so we will have to wait until next season to do another. Fortunately though living in Texas, the season starts a bit earlier. Next up though is the MS 150 October 9th and 10th-150 mile bike ride!

Brady's 4th Birthday

On September 5th Brady turned 4! It is till hard to imagine my baby is 4! He attended the summer program at his school all summer and made a really good little friend named Jackson. They are BFF! It is so cute! Unfortunately they are not in the same class now this fall, but they still get to see each other at recess and play together on the playground. For Brady's birthday we had a little party and invited all the kids in his class. Only two were able to come, Robbie and Jackson. But that was perfectly fine with me and Brady had a blast with his two buddies. They played games, made a disaster area of the playroom upstairs, opened presents, drank juice, ate cake and played with the presents he got from his friends. It was a great birthday!

The theme for his party was Cars, but they didn't have a pin the tail on the car. Brady and Jackson play ironman on the playground every day and he seems to like the idea of transformers (which I think is hilarious! The kid has never even seen the movies or cartoons, so I'm not sure how he knows what Ironman and transformers are. I guess its that boy instict!), so I asked if he wanted the old fashioned pin the tail on the donkey, or if he wanted the transformers version and of course he started jumping up and down excitedly saying transformers!!!!

Then we played hot potato which was super cute! Grayson even played!

The last game was a water balloon toss. I actually saved it for after cake and presents thinking they would get soaked, but they didn't. Harumph!

After they tossed with their partner and determined a winner the boys grabbed the left over balloons and went after Brady! Haha!

Presents! Thank you friends!

This is a special present from his Great Granny Dee (my moms mom). She is a wonderful quilter, we all have at least one of her quilts, and she made this napping mat and pillow for Brady.He loved it! As did both of his friends!

This is what inspired the design of Brady's napping mat. Brady and I riding Gramps' John Deer when we up to Michigan for a visit. Brady was about 23 months here. He had a blast riding on the tractor!

This past summer my parents went up to Michigan for a visit and took Grayson with them. Grayson also got to drive the tractor and insisted on his hands being on the wheel and doing the driving! So Granny made him a napping mat too. Too cute!

The boys out playing with one of the new presents-The Cars color changing car wash-Thank you Jackson!

Lightning McQueen Cake-my handy work. It didn't come out quite as well as I wanted. I used whipped frosting instead of buttercream and it just didn't seem to set up like I wanted. Plus I was rushed-I went for a run the morning of the party then had to go run errands and didn't allot enough time to take my time-I should know better by now! But, non the less it was a huge hit at the party, it tasted good and most importantly Brady loved it!Happy Birthday to you!

All 3 boys getting ready to be all sugared up! Jackson, Brady and Robbie.

Brady loves animals, so for his big gift Mimi and Pa Pa got him a hermit crab and it's crabitat. We asked him what he wanted to name it and he said Hermie, so Hermie it is. We ended up getting another one and it's name is Hermie #2. Very creative!Thank you Mimi and Pa Pa!

He is so gentle with it. You have to be very quiet and still for it to come out of its shell.

Hermie? Are you in there?
Hermie!

TV debut!

The stroller fitness business I own called Baby Boot Camp made it to the big screen! Ok, maybe not the big screen...more like small scale local morning show, but hey, call it what you will my business was on TV! I pay for advertising on a local mom resource website called Moms Around SA and the creator of the website has a regular spot on our local morning show, San Antonio Living. I mentioned that I wanted to be on the show a few months ago, and a few weeks ago I got a call asking if I wanted to do a segment on the show. Wahhoo!!! It was a really quick piece and I don't feel like I promoted the local classes enough, but from the big picture view it went great. It gave me exposure and put the Baby Boot Camp name out there. So, if you'd like to take a peek at our big TV debut just click on the link below.

http://www.woai.com/entertainment/story/Baby-boot-camp-helping-moms-lose-the-baby-weight/YpGDrk1My0aZYNo3DNsL9A.cspx

Hotter-N-Hell Hundred

The last weekend in August my dad, Tim and I completed the first of our 3 races for the season. The Hotter-n-hell hundred is a 100 mile bike ride in Wichita Falls where the high temperature hits 100 degrees at this point in the summer. We drove the 5 hours up there on Friday so that we could pick up our packets and go to the expo. The HHH is known for having a really great expo-and this year they did not disappoint. The first time I rode the HHH was in 2004 when Tim was already in Ft. Hood training to deploy, so he couldn't ride with dad and I, and it was right before our "church/2nd" wedding. At the expo I found an amazing deal on a wheel set which I ended up buying for Tim as his wedding gift! This year we didn't get anything quite as snazzy as that, but we did get some cycling shorts and jerseys for about 50% off. Sa-weet! So then the next morning we had to get up at O'dark thirty-a.k.a 4:30 am to drive the hour back up to Wichita Falls from where we were staying. With 13,000 riders, hotel rooms were a little tough to come by. At the start line they line you up according to what distance you are riding then, how fast you say you will ride. Well unfortunately I think we got started in the back of our group so we had to work our way through a lot of riders and couldn't find any good pace lines to join. But none the less, we had a really great ride. The boys were out to set a land speed record and stop at as few rest stops for as short of rests as possible. I did not get the memo. I thought we were stopping at one rest stop but we didn't and I was out of water and then I think I missed a "meal" (aka-power bar or gel), plus there was a mean head/cross wind and I don't ride well in wind, so I ran out of steam a bit at about the 60 mile point. This unfortunately slowed us down from about 20 mph to 16 mph. The boys were doing awesome, so I felt like a huge wimp! Grrrr! But we still finished up in 6 hours 17 minutes total time and not including our rest stops our ride time was 5 hours 39 minutes with an average speed of 18 mph. There were 13,000 total riders, but not all of them wore a timing chip-you had to pay extra for it-which of course Tim insisted we get one. There were 1,197 100 milers who wore the chip and we came in 417th, 418th and 420th (some dude snuck in between us claiming 419th-the nerve!). So I think we did pretty dang well. But here's the real shocker, I ended up coming in 4th out of 17 in my age group and 19th out of 149 overall females! It looks like trying to keep up with the boys has done me some good! Tim came in 31st in his age group and dad came in 27th in his age group. So although we didn't get into a super speedy pace line and zip along at an average of 23 mph like we planned, we still did a great job in our own 3 man pace line-Go Team Mann-handlers!

Team Mann-handlers before the 100 miler.

Early birthday with Nana

Nana drove down from Kansas last week to celebrate Brady's birthday a little early. She works at The Boys and Girls Club and with school starting she wouldn't be able to take any time off in early September. She came and stayed for about a week and the boys had a wonderful visit with Nana! She spoiled us and got us all early birthday presents of Sea World seasons passes. Thank you Nana! Brady loves Sea World and Shamu right now. We read the 2 same whale books every night and he plays whale with his stuffed shamu splashing and jumping all over the house. We have already been back for another visit since...it was so nice, parking is free for season pass holders, so we drove right in, parked relatively close, went and fed the dolphins, looked at the sharks, saw the penguins and the sea lions and headed home. Brady said, but I want to see Shamu again, and we said, don't worry, we can come back any time! He was thrilled!

Brady and Nana at the entrance. Grayson so excited for the days events-and the heat! It was 103 degrees this day! HOT!

Taking in the dolphin show on daddy's shoulders.

My beautiful boys.

Shamu

Early this year one of their whales gave birth to a calf. The momma was performing in the show, so the baby whale just followed her around wherever she went and tried to do some tricks every now and then. It was super cute!