Gooood morning everyone!

It be HOT here in California...hard to sleep last night in fact

JC - no problem posting Kristi's link - in fact I had put it in the Basic BB Info sticky a couple weeks ago - thanks for bringing attention to it - it's an AWESOME site and Kris has put a LOT of time and energy into it!

and a BIG CONGRATS to you for aceing the test!!! Whew!

(if most of you haven't figured it out by now, I don't spend a lot of time on the 'net during the weekends...)

Gotta JAM into the shower...more later!

Let's make this an AWESOME week!

Good morning! A little sore from my workout yesterday, but not as bad as I thought it would be. That means I can definitely bump up the weights on Wed morning. This will be a week of eating right, working out, and not worrying about what the scale says. I'm not interested in being flabby, soft, and fitting into a size 9. I'd really rather wear a 12 and have the muscles to show for it.

My ride went exceptionally well last night, and I'm not sure if I'm more proud of my kids or my horse. My daughter rode Arashi, and looked beautiful doing it. Her posting is getting very fluid. And for the first time, my son decided to try riding! He's 11, and we put him on one of the ponies... lo and behold, he was born to ride. Within about 10 minutes he had that pony trotting all over the place. No fear. It was wonderful. Now I just have to figure out how to pay for HIS lessons, too! All he could say after riding for a long time was "wow, this is harder work than it looks!" Heh.

Happy Monday everyone!

Congratulations, JC!!!!! Way to go, girl! I'm so happy for you. I could hear the worry and agony all summer even across several oceans and continents!

Got my workout in early today, chest and tri's done. I've got loads of stuff to do this afternoon, but I think I'll get in a HIIT session. Cardio has been slipping and the scale is NOT moving.

Meg- A little late, but congrats on getting in such a good workout last week I'm sure it felt even better mentally than physically.

Raven- Sounds like you had a great time with kids and horses this weekend. I haven't ridden (except "trail rides" on vacations) since a horse tried to decapitate me when I was 19. It was a highspirited guy, and he hadn't been ridden in about 10 months. Didn't much like the idea of starting again, either. So after a few minutes, he bolted for the 1/2 open barn door and I luckily flung myself off before he sneaked thru. I don't have any fear of riding, just too many other things to do. Dd was a great rider bwetween 10-15 yrs old. She did a lot of shows and was on a drill team, but allergies stopped her. They got progressively worse, to the point that I had to dope her up w/ benadryl everytime we went to the stables. Kinda dangerous to be jumping half doped.

Ilene- Welcome back! The Falls really is a tourist trap, isn't it? Did you do the wax museums and the needle? Is Maple Leaf Village still there? Usually we just drive thru as fast as we can, but every few years stop and do something touristy. I actually like it best in the winter when the spray freezes in really bizarre patterns on the rock, and they do a night time laser light show.

Hi Karen- How's your new love? Did you get to ride him this weekend? (uh, to anyone who doesn't know, MJ just part-leased a horse. This is not quite as personal as it sounds!)

gotta do some real work now,

mel

Hey all, and Happy Monday!

I'm getting an early jump on the Labor Day Wardrobe Change. (yes I do put my white shoes away.) I am considering ditching
my WW materials, once and for all. If I decide to do this, I'll put a general post on WW General and the first PM to me with
full snailmail address (PO box will do just fine) will get it... Still considering, should I keep it for historical purposes or ditch it....

I thanked my #1 support person, my little brother (he's 6'4") yesterday. He is a person who must struggle to keep his weight on. I told him we could trade. :wink: He is careful to eat healthy and keeps his fat grams down, but eats 3200 calories just to maintain. So even the thin folks need to struggle to stay healthy. This helps me, and he and I compare home gyms, real gyms and lifting strategies. I guess it is a much needed balm for dealing with the food issues my mom throws at me. Don't get me wrong, my mom is a fantastic person and I cannot think of a better mom. It's just her weakness....

I am really getting my journaling done! I have a permanent food day journal, I buy 5 years at a time of drilled paper from Kinko's (it's a custom job so it's cheaper to do so much at once). I'm using Composition journals for my BFL challenges and keeping track of my workouts and weights and measurements. This is working for me, so I'll do it this way. The forms are just not portable enough and I like to have the room on the page to write.

JEC, congratulations on your feat! GOOD JOB!

Walked a 10K yesterday, my hip is killing me but I feel good for completing it. Today is leg day. I'm going to go for the perfect form and take my time but get my sets done.

Everybody have a super OP week!!

JC! Way to Go! All of us on the boards are extremely proud of you.

It was cool in the motorcity this weekend :-( DD had a birthday sleepover and we camped out in a big tent Saturday night. It was SO COLD and man, that ground was hard. I could barely get out of the tent Sunday morning. I held myself down to only 1 S'More on Saturday and 1 on Sunday.

The kids started school today - they look so cute in their uniforms - so I start my fall workout. Tonite and tomorrow are more cardio, but Super Weights Wednesday is on the way. I am hoping to have purchased a weight set before then.

Good Job Jennifa on the 10K. I hope your hip doesn't hinder your leg workout today.

JC you rock!! I am not a book study person. I never really did well in school. I am more a hands on person when it comes to learning. Maybe that is why I try all of the crazy weight loss things that I do. I just have to try them out to really see if they work and most of the time no they don't.

Ilene I wish I could get that far up north. I have only made it to TN and it was to cold for me there. I don't think I could make it to the falls but I would love to see them.

Meg you are so amazing with you recovery. That was so fast!

Karen my kitty got stuck once in the wall. We had a plumer over fixing some tile in the tub and when the man went outside the cat climbed in. Well, the guy cmae back in t and started to fill up the hole (we weren't home at the time). We we got home I notice I only saw one cat. We looked everywhere. Joe even drove around the neighborhood. No kitty. So Joe had to use the bathroom so the guy stepped out and when Joe was in there he heard a small meow. You should have seem the look on the guys face when I told him he was going to have to tear down that tile. What did he think I was going to leave me baby in there? Luckly our tub backed up to the fridge so we were able to cut a hole in the wall. That scared the cat even more so it took a good hour just to get him out. I tried to get him ou with a can of tuna but my other cat just kept trying to eat it. We finally got him out and the poor thing was scared to death for the rest of the day.

I am starting C2 today so I am all geeked up right now about it. i hope I have a good day today.

Hello girls

Well back to work for me today. I'm not impressed, working sucks! For anyone who may not know I am a temp secretary and I replace in schools. This is my first time in this school and there hasn't been a secretary there all summer, mail scattered allll over the place so I have to organize everything... I'm there for two weeks full time then I go to 35% time, which is what I asked for because they did ask me to take the 100% position (there were 2 positions available) But darn it all I hate stress!! Not that I don't handle it well but everything else gets behind. Most pple think I'm crazy even my mom last night asked why I didn't want to work full time if I like the work so much... Oh well that's just the way I am, and DH loves when I work part time...

Mel -- WE actually didn't do the wax museums or the needle! We did do the Maid of the MIst, walk under the falls, walked the boardwalk beside the river where the rapids are, saw the butterfly sanctuary... It was alot of fun although expensive!

Kempyd -- Your cat story really made me laugh, we are cat pple here too. We have a Chloe...

Well, I must go I am only on lunch here....

A bit more time to do some posting here...

Kempy - Sparky (Chalupa boy) wasn't STUCK - he WANTED to be in there - he loves burrowing and finding hiding places! (Megan, our chubby girl-cat, on the other hand, much prefers being 'out in the open' at ALL times). It was VERY hot last night - both Jim and I were drifting in and out of sleep (I took THREE baths/showers yesterday trying to keep cool, including a cold shower just before bed). Around 2:00 am, I was woken up by the sound of one of the cats playing with one of the 1,384 cat toys we have around the house - this one is a plastic circle thing with a green plastic ball inside it, that the cats can bat around and around the track - I bought it at Petco a year or so ago and Sparky could care less about it (we didn't have Megan at the time). Well now all of a sudden this week it became THE HOT CAT TOY in our house - one or both of them ALWAYS seems to be batting that ball around! (Actually Sparky's favorite 'toy' is a Corona beer bottle cap - he loves batting those things around and carrying them in his mouth - but Jim is afraid he'll try and chew it and break a tooth so they are strictly off limits too bad because it's hilarious watching him play with those caps).

I had a *great* weekend with my new boy, Dakota! And yes I had an awesome ride on Saturday - it's easy to tell when riding him WHY he was a National Top Ten Champion - he has at least THREE different trots that he can turn off and on at will. On Saturday I used the hunt saddle on him (I had been using his owner's dressage saddle, but I prefer hunt seat) and at one point when performing an extended trot, Dakota was not only going very fast indeed (we were smokin' the other two horses in the ring at the TROT) but he was also bringing his legs WAY up, just like this photo of him in his Champion days - he gets that, I'm sure, from his ancestor *Bask, who was a VERY famous Arabian stallion - Dakota has Bask three times in his pedigree:



And his canter...always blows me away. Since I was in a hunt saddle, I got into a two-point for part of the canter and I could tell he REALLY liked that - he turned it up a notch! But at the same time, he was very responsive to my aids (legs and hands) - he's VERY light in the mouth and fortunately I have pretty light hands (according to Dee Dee). Spent a good deal of the weekend at the stables of course Jim was in the recording studio all day on Saturday so no biggie!

Raven - if I fall (haven't fallen off a horse for about 2 years now) off Dakota, it won't be far - since he's an Arabian, he's on the short side - I haven't 'sticked' him but I'd estimate he's somewhere between 14.2 -15.0 hands high (for you non-horse folk - 1 hand = 4 inches and you measure from the ground to the withers (shoulders or where the saddle pommel goes) NOT up to the top of the ears!).

Mel - that sounds like an awful experience - no wonder you haven't wanted to ride since then - sounds to me as though they should've given you a quieter mount or at least worked/lunged the horse before they put you on him

So anyway...back to fitness stuff - started my *new* split today with chest and quads...it always feels good to start a new program!

Gotta get some work done - buh-bye for now

This is turning into a riding board! lol!

Karen, I didn't get "stuck" with that horse, I stupidly volunteered to ride it. It belonged to a friend's boyfriend who had quit riding due to an injury. So I said I'd come out and work it. I was an immortal 19 at the time, and had taken about 4 years of riding lessons. But I knew diddley about horses in general, so it really was my own fault. I have no problems with riding again- just never really got the bug once the early teen thing wore off. And I have too many other expenseive hobbies already- like a kid in college and another one hopefully headed there one day.

Kempyd- Your poor cat must have been terrified! We adopted one about 3 months ago who was so terrified at first that she lived in the hung ceiling in our basement. She came out to eat and use the litter box at night, but then disappeared again. I eventually rented a Have-a Heart trap, baited it with salmon, and viola! 1/2 an hour later there was one very surprised cat in the cage. She has since turned into a really sweet cuddler who takes up far more space on the bed than I do!

Ilene- Glad you had a good time. I understand perfectly about not wanting to work full time. I have 2 very flexible part-time jobs and that's more than I want at this point. Luckily one of them is my own business, so I can say *no* when I need to.

I can't stay awake this afternoon- I'm not used to hitting the gym in the morning. Think I'll go do some cardio to revive myself.

mel

Since we are sharing.. this is my fatty Sparticus

Here is the new baby of the bunch Hera

I know we are cat people but here is the biggest baby in the house, Echo. This picture was when she was home from duck school b/c she cut her foot. (you can see the bandage here)

Can you tell I am a proud mama?

Mel,

That's how my Mom's Ghost was at first. The only reason she knew she had a cat was because the litter box would get used and food would disappear. It took my mom 3 months to get the cat used to her. Ghost is also afraid of spray bottles. Mom said that whenever she pulls out her spray bottle to clean plants the cat heads the other way. Guess that is how her old owners used to discipline her.

Kempy - Sparticus is beautiful!! Hera looks like a maine coon... how pretty! You're making me jealous. I do miss having a kitty sometimes.

Mrs. Jim - I hadn't taken a spill off a horse for nearly 20 years... well, I suppose not having been on one for that whole period of time makes it not count, eh? I'm a returning rider, Arashi is green, it's bound to happen and certainly nothing to fret about. I expect it certainly will not be the last time it happens as he and I train each other. And though I do love riding fully trained horses, I have a real passion for working with a young horse and developing that bond over the years. With that comes the oopsies along the way, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Thank goodness for insurance! And like Dakota, Arashi is a shorty, too - he's a quarter horse (pony) and only stands 14.3. Perfect for me! Dakota is a magnificent horse, I hope you have a lot of wonderful times on him!

Ilene - I think it's great that you can work part time... I sure wish I could. I have too many other things I'd rather be doing!

WOW what a reaction! Thanks to everyone for your congrats. It feels good that I got a reward for working so hard and putting everything else aside. Now I have some other goals to achieve!

Had a great workout yesterday and food is on track.

What's with all the animals? Its enough to get me get out my catalogue of pictures of my 2 babies! (or just to the msn website to see their pic!) DEFINATELY a dog person though!

Sparticus is beautiful Karen.

JC