Merry Christmas!!

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I hope you are all enjoying time with family and loved ones on this special day and enjoying the spirit and joy of the season. Seeing the look on Kyle and Emily's faces this morning when they realized Santa had come was priceless! I think Emily's favourite gifts were a Teletubbie, her Cabbage Patch baby and a toy stroller to push her dolls in. Kyle loved his Sponge Bob video game and his French Sponge Bob book (did I mention he LOVES Sponge Bob ;). He has been learning French at school this year and loves to read French books now. I'm proud of him!

Have a great day everyone!

Julie

The Seven Sevens

This is taken from a great idea from Teresa's blog...

Seven things to do before I die:

1. See my children grow into happy, healthy, successful adults
2. Finish my PhD
3. Compete in a figure competition
4. Appear somewhere in Oxygen magazine
5. Run a marathon
6. Finally get organized around the house
7. Take the kids to Disney World

Seven things I cannot do:

1. A cartwheel
2. Downhill ski (well, I haven't really tried often, so maybe I actually CAN!!)
3. Speak any language other than English and French
4. Grow any taller than I already am (heels don't count!)
5. Change others
6. Predict the future
7. Take my loved ones for granted (or at least I shouldn't do it.)

Seven things I admire in others:

1. Honesty
2. A sense of humour
3. Intelligence
4. Ambition
5. Ability to listen
6. Determination
7. Inner beauty

Seven things I say most often:

1. "You know what I mean?"
2. "Eh" (my Canadian colours shine through!)
3. "Right"
4. "Jeepers"
5. "You've got to be kidding!"
6. "Oh my God!"
7. "That's awesome!"

Seven books I love:

1. Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom
2. The Child Care Encyclopedia
3. The Summons
4. The Firm
5. The Diary of Anne Frank
6. The 30-day Total Health Makeover
7. Any Chicken Soup for the Soul Book

Seven Movies I have watched over and over again:

1. Dumb and Dumber
2. Cruel Intentions
3. Dead Poet's Society
4. Dirty Dancing
5. Ghost
6. Ace Ventura Pet Detective
7. Beauty and the Beast

Seven people I want to join in too:

1. Christina
2. Stephen
3. Derek
4. Kristina
5. Kristin
6. Jennifer
7. Sue

And anyone else who wants to join in. I would never exclude anyone :)

DOH! I knew I was picture challenged!!

Oops! I somehow messed up the second pic from my last blog. Oh well, I tried.....

Woohoo! Another course done!

Well, yesterday I handed in my take-home exam for my Health Psychology class which means I have another course under my belt! Yeah!! I now officially have only two half-credits and my dissertation left until I will finally have my PhD!! And I have to say, after being in university for (gulp!) 10 years now, I can't wait to be finished. I dream of what it will be like to come home from work and not have to read articles, write papers or study. Despite all this craziness, I know it will pay off in the long run.

Things at work are pretty tense for everyone right now. Our organization is in the process of making some major changes which we know involves big closures and cutbacks. We just don't know who will be affected yet. In fact, our new executive director told us today that we will know by the end of this month exactly who will be cut and when. She even asked those of us who will be off on holidays the last week of December (that includes me) to leave a phone number where we will be because she expects to be contacting people on Dec. 28 or 29. Man, I would just rather know now than have to wait it out through x-mas, but I guess the final decisions just haven't been made yet. Talk about sitting on the edge of your seat. Part of me is nervous because of the financial implications for my family, but part of me thinks that if it happens, it's because it's supposed to. I guess I'm a believer in fate to some degree.....

On a happier note, we took some family pictures this weekend to send out in our Christmas cards, so I'm going to try to post them. I've never posted pics yet on blogger so I apologize if they are kinda wonky looking!

Here's the family: Me and my hubby and Kyle and Emily

And here are Emily and Kyle hamming it up for the camera:

The Oh So Elusive Pull-Up.....

O.K., so for months now, I have been trying to master the art of unassisted pull ups. Yet, try as I might I can't seem to do one! For the longest time, I've been doing machine assisted pull ups with about 60 lbs of assistance (which means I am pulling up about 75lbs on my own). Every now and then I would try them unassisted but was unable to do so.

More recently, I've been noticing that my arms are building up nicely so I thought, "Pull ups? Yeah, I should be able to do a couple by now", but noooooooo, nope, nil. There I hung in the middle of the air for several seconds with my arms as straight as ever and my chin no closer to the bar than when I started. So down on the floor I hopped with a quick look around to make sure not *too* many people had witnessed my silliness. Not that anyone else should care or judge, but I guess it hurt my pride a little! I decided to try again with 50lbs instead of the usual 60 and I was pleasantly surprised that I could do 2 sets of 12 reps and relieved that there was proof that indeed I am getting at least a bit stronger!

I don't know if it's just a mental block that keeps me from being able to do unassisted pull ups or if I truly just need to keep building strength. Hell, it's probably a bit of both! Either way, one of these days I'm gonna do it and boy will that be fun to post about!

C ya!

Gettin' Started

Well, I've finally decided to give this blogging thing a try. Here's a little about me:

I am a 29-year old mom of two beautiful kids who has been married for 7 years. I work as a counsellor for troubled teenagers who have drug and alcohol addictions and I'm also working on a PhD in Psychology. So yeah, you guessed it: I don't have much free time! In the extra time that I do have, I love to watch Reality TV (esp. Survivor), read and try out new and healthy recipes.

Working out is also very important to me and helps to keep me sane with such a busy schedule. I do 2-3 days/week of total body resistance training and up to 4 cardio sessions a week, usually treadmill or elliptical. I LOVE training arms and have noticed some great changes over the past 3 or so months. Who knew I actually had biceps under there! Some day I would love to compete in a figure competition but don't have the time to train to the extent that I would need to right now.

More than anything, I hope that I can pass on my love for fitness and nutrition to my kids so that they will grow up to be healthy and strong. As a kid, I was chubby and didn't take part in many sports or physical activity and I remember what it was like to be teased. As a teenager, I took charge and started exercising (anybody out there remember the 20-minute workout on TV? Well, that's what got me going believe it or not!) and eating better. I joined some of my high school sports teams and as I became more fit, my confidence grew and I knew I was on to something. So hopefully my knowledge and experience will allow my kids to embrace a healthy lifestyle from a young age rather than them having to "catch up" later on in life as I did.

Anyways, that's a little part of my story and I'm looking forward to seeing how this blogging goes!