Life is great!

I can't believe how much time has passed since my last post! Normally when I don't post it means that I'm depressed and just don't have much to say. Well, not this time! I haven't been posting because I've been busy and have tons to say! Let's see if I can get it all out into some sort of organized chaos:).

In the exercise/fitness area of my life, I have become really active! I workout 6 days a week, Friday is my rest day. I run on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday; six workouts left for Couch to 5k! On Monday and Wednesday I do a Zumba workout with the Kinect and whatever else I feel like doing on those days. On Thursdays I not only run, but also go to a fitness class at the gym on post. And starting this coming Saturday I'm going to be going to a belly dancing class, as well! If you've heard the phrase "a body in motion, stays in motion," that is totally what is going on with me! I started with just a couple workouts a week, but before I knew it I was trying to plan something for everyday. I actually have to force myself to rest on Fridays! I think I'm going to start doing yoga on my run days, too. I did it today and it just felt so great to stretch out my legs and just relax.

Moving on to my dreads... They are really coming along! Everyday I wake up and my hair looks different than it did the day before. I made a video a few days ago, so I'll just post that. I love my hair, hehe:). Oh and sorry in advanced for all the noise in the background, lol. That's Adelaide playing in the little kitchen.

I also made a video earlier this month of me hooping. It had been a month since I started hooping.

Earlier this month Adelaide turned a year old! Can't believe how fast the time has gone by. For fun here's a link to my birth story with Adelaide:) I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but Adelaide started walking right around 10 months. She's growing up to be such a funny and friendly little girl:). McKaleigh is going to be 3 years old soon, so hard to believe. She recently has become hooked on playing on the computer. Every time I step away even for a minute, she'll get on the computer and navigate her way to webpages she thinks are interesting. It amazes me how well she can use the computer!

So overall, life has been great! There's probably more I could find to talk about, but this post covers too many topics as it is:).

C25K is back on! Plus dread update:).

I'm back at it! While my mom and sister were here, I got into the habit of walking or running everyday, and I've really stuck to it! Tomorrow I start week 4 of the Couch to 5k plan and there's a 5k in early November that I'm planning on actually signing up for:). It feels so great to get outside every morning and I'm even starting to get a bit of a tan. I normally am more about safe sun than I am about being tan, but I have to admit, I look better with a little bit of a tan:P.

Got off track, lol, oh well, I don't claim to be a pro at this blogging stuff or anything. I just sort of write whatever comes to my head. It's my "secret public journal," as Mike Birbiglia would say;).

So anyways, in a pathetic attempt to stream this all together, you can see how tan I've gotten from all my running and walking in these pictures I took to show the change in my hair! It's been almost 8 months since I stopped brushing:).

I love this little squiggly one in the front.

Baby dreads:).

Back view, under the first layer of dreads.

That's really all I had to say... Things are going great in my life, overall! I hoop almost everyday and have been having SO much fun learning and perfecting new tricks. Once I hit the one month mark since I got my hoop, I'll be posting another video:).

My First Hooping Video

I made my first hooping video today! I mostly made it for my own benefit, so that a few months from now I'll be able to see where I started. I've had my hoop for less than two weeks, and honestly I'm really proud of how much I've learned in this short time! And tonight I tried two more tricks that I got almost right away!

So here is my video:)



Hooping is so great for me in so many ways. Before having kids I used to smoke, and every so often I would miss smoking. I didn't really miss cigarettes, but I missed those quiet moments outside, all by myself. So now I have that with hooping! And it won't kill me;). I'm so glad I've found hooping, I think it's just what I needed. It's something that is all mine, not related to being a mom or wife, it's just something that is all mine. I think everyone needs something like that.

I LOVE my hula hoop!

I got my hoop today and already love it! Before, I could never even get a hoop to stay up around my waist, but having a good quality hoop makes a huge difference! I can keep it up for a pretty long time now and have started to attempt some tricks. Two tricks I got today really gave me a hard time, I did each of them really well once, but definitely am no where near mastering them, haha. I feel so happy, hooping really does lift my spirits in a way nothing else has. There's just this feeling of elation:). When I get some tricks down I'll have to make a little video to post. I definitely want to record my progress so in a few months I can look back and really see how much better I get.

Here's a close up of the prettiness:)

Also, my mom, brother, and sister are here! They're just visiting for a little while, but it is SO nice having them here. I love having the extra hands with the girls and just having more big people to talk to, lol. I hope this time doesn't go by too quickly, but only a few months and we'll be living in the same town. I'm definitely looking forward to that.

The poofiness has subsided a bit:)

I thought I would add some pictures of what my hair looked like a week after I TnRed all of it. I took two or three showers that week and it settled things down a lot. I'm really happy with it:).

They're staying together for the most part:)

Also, I'm taking up a new hobby! The fires have been ridiculous lately and I haven't gotten a chance to run, so that's being tabled for the time being. Anyways... I was watching someone's dread progress vlog, she was 6 months into letting her hair naturally dread, and had the most amazing young natural dreads I've ever seen! That's beside the point though:), at the end of the video she showed the new LED hoop she had gotten. It was a very large hula hoop. I was slightly confused, so off to Google I went, and I found the most amazing videos of people "hooping!" I got really excited about it, it just seems so fun and really appealed to me. I got on etsy and ordered a hoop from Stephanie, who I found through dreadlocksite.com. She has an etsy shop, Spread It Round Hoops and I ordered a custom hoop from her! I got to pick out the size and colors and she has been wonderful to work with! She's making it this weekend and it should be ready to ship on Monday. By the end of the week I should be ready to start hooping! I am very excited! And to give you an idea of how awesome hooping can be, I will leave you with a video:).

Dreadlocks, C25K, and more reasons to hate Georgia

I was looking through pictures on dreadlockssite.com the other day. Each time I would see a picture of a set of dreads that I really liked, I would go through and see what method they used. Every single set I liked was started by using the twist and rip method, so I decided to take the plunge! Over the last six months my hair has completely sectioned itself naturally, but really only the top layer of my hair was really starting to knot up. Since the look I wanted is normally gotten through twist and rip, I decided I should probably use that method too. I need to take pictures today because after a shower they are not as puffy, lol, but they definitely need some length and weight to them before they'll look really good. Hopefully that will happen over the next 6 months:). Here are pictures from right after I did them all. (The first pic is just after doing most of the front.)

I have no cool way of moving on from the dreadlocks, so here is my awkward transition. Today I did the second day of Couch to 5k (C25k.) I'm excited to get into running, but it would be so much easier if I didn't live in Georgia! In Iowa almost all morning are nice, even on the hottest days, it is still nice in the morning. Here in Georgia you have to get up before the sun if you want to run in nice weather! And that just ain't happenin'. Not to mention it is smoky half the time, because there are constantly controlled burnings. I'm probably going to kill myself trying to run in these crazy circumstances, where it's hot and smoky. Today the smoke didn't seem so bad, so I went running anyways. I have to take the girls in the double jogging stroller, so I'm not so sure I should've gone :/. It's the only workout I can do completely in peace, since the girls are content in the stroller and can't really interrupt me. Plus, if I wait until the smoke rises then it's already too late in the day and it's just torture to be outside at all.

Right now these first workouts are pretty easy, walk for five minutes as a warm up, then alternate running one minute and walking a minute and a half for like 20 minutes, then another five minutes of walking to cool down. I'm not sure how many times I do the alternations because I have a nifty C25K Android app that does it all for me, making a little chime when it's time to switch from running to walking. I have to do this first workout one more time and then I switch to the week 2 workout. I'm really hoping I can stick to it!

And as a little update, I have not had a drop of alcohol since before my post about two weeks ago. I'm really trying to keep it up! Although I've been having a Netflix Grey's Anatomy marathon over the last couple of days and they drink all. the. time. Sort of makes me "thirsty," haha, but I'm staying strong!

I just feel like rambling!

I've wanted to blog for the last week or so, but just don't know what to write about, so I thought I would just ramble and talk about whatever!

My hair has been doing awesome things since the last time I took pictures! I can't believe how much more knotting I've had. I would post pictures, but I promised myself I wouldn't take pictures too frequently, because I figured the more spaced out I take them, the better I'll be able to see progress. I might take some pictures at the 7 month mark, although originally my plan was to wait until 9 months, keeping up with the every 3 months thing. I've also been thinking about making a video, since it's so hard to see my awesome baby dreads with my crappy camera (aka my phone, haha.) It's such a fun experience because you get to see the dreads being born and growing, they have such a mind of their own:). As my hair gets longer, I love it even more, I'm so excited for the months (and years) to come!

Adelaide is 10.5 months old and taking lots of steps! McKaleigh didn't walk until a few months after she turned a year old, so it's really weird to see Adelaide making these attempts! It seems like every day she can take another step than she could the day before, it's pretty fun. McKaleigh and Adelaide also spend a lot of time playing together, which just makes me so happy:). It's fun watching them become friends.

Michael is coming up on orders for Korea, reporting in January. After the holidays, the girls and I will be moving to Iowa to be closer to family. I'm so excited to live in my hometown again. More and more I'm realizing that I'm really not cut out for the military lifestyle, so this will be a much appreciated break from it. I'm going to miss him so much, but at least it's not a deployment!

Overall things have been great for me! The house is messy, but in a manageable way:). I put everything off til the last minute in my class, but somehow still manage to have an A! Life is chaotic and crazy and I'm happy! I love being happy:).