New experiences with an Old Pastime

I used to be quite athletic growing up.  No matter what time of year I was always playing or watching some sport.  But I've never been much into professional sports.  I think the only professional game I've seen in any sport was when Michael Jordan with the Chicago Bulls played Muggsy Bogues with the Charlotte Hornets (am I showing my age?!).

Brandon loves to watch sports so I have gone to plenty of NC State, Duke and Durham Bulls games.  Although it's not major league a Durham Bulls game is a fun afternoon.  You can enjoy your foot-long hotdog and beer, watch a couple double-plays and maybe even get a suntan - what girl wouldn't love that?! Really I enjoyed it because it was some time to spend with my husband doing something he enjoys.

Last weekend we thought it would be fun to take the big girls to a baseball game.  We've learned our lesson in the past when Summer was about Bella's age that any event where you sit for long periods of time is not fun with an 18 month old.  So, Bella had her own personal date night with Grandad while Caroline and Summer joined Brandon and me for 9 innings.  At least we thought it was going to be nine innings.

We had spent all morning and afternoon that day at Caroline's soccer game, followed immediately by a cupcake fundraiser for Sixtyfeet.  We were so pleased that we somehow avoided all the storms headed our way.  So of course on the way to the game it started to pour.  Once we arrived the game was on delay so we spent way too much time in the gift shop trying on hats and explaining the difference between a baseball and a football.  We walked through the halls and finally decided rather than eat our dinner standing against a wall or on a dirty floor we would make a run for the Tobacco Road restaurant overlooking the ballpark.  Unfortunately everyone else had the same idea so we waited about an hour for a table.  The girls were so patient sitting in my lap in the one chair we could snag.  They played a video game on my phone and just enjoyed some time with Mom and Dad.  We finally sat down to a nice dinner with a great view of the field just in time to see them pull the tarp and warm up.

After dinner we headed to our seats.  It was still misting a little, but we were armed with loads of paper towels and two excited little girls.  Summer and Caroline's eyes were as big as saucers when we sat in our front row seats.  There was so much to take in with the players running around, the giant "cow" in the outfield, and the anticipation of a foul ball coming our way.  I was so glad to have dealt with the rain just for this one moment.  We only watched half of one inning, and part of it included the sprinkler system going off around the pitcher, but that time will be etched in my brain for years to come.

Finally the downpour began again, so we promised the girls a treat from the snack bar and headed for the car.  Their smiles continued all the way to their car seats when I handed them their giant bags of popcorn and bottle of Sprite for the ride home.  The game was cancelled in the 3rd inning so our tickets are good for another game.  We have already booked our tickets and I can't wait to try it again.

These days any game is a little less about the score and a little more about the experience.  It's so great to enjoy them together and we're counting the days until we can do it more often.

Let them eat cupcakes!

Last year about this time I was preparing for the hardest 20 months of my family's life. Brandon was about to start school and the girls were so little. I was ready to bunker down in my home and try to hide out until the end of 2012. Before it even started my sister asked me to get involved with the Cupcake kids. Although I was hesitant at first our sale completely changed me. Below is a blog I wrote about our experience that was first posted on thecupcakekids.org website and sixtyfeet.org website last year:

Last September my husband and I welcomed our 3^rd child into the family. Life with a kindergartner, a 2 year old, and a new baby became interesting. Our children now outnumbered us and we basically went into survival mode. We would say, “Do or don’t do whatever you can, just try to get to the next day alive!” Finally, our youngest daughter, Bella, reached the 6 month mark. She laughs and sits up. Her sisters love and play with her and we are finally feeling back to normal, at least for the next 4 weeks. In May, my husband will begin study at Duke for his MBA. For him, evenings will be for studying, weekends will be for classes, and I feel like I am preparing for survival mode again for the next 20 months.

While Brandon is in school, I will be at home with the girls pretty much all day and night by myself. I decided we would put off everything. I needed to make my life as simple as possible. No added stress to tip the already rickety boat. I just wanted to care for my children and support my husband, and call it a day.

My sister, Shelly, asked me if I would be interested in helping with a Cupcake Kids sale in our area to help raise money for Sixtyfeet. I thought it was a great project, but I certainly wouldn’t have time with 3 little ones at home and a husband that is studying most of the time that he isn’t already working. Maybe this is something I could help with in a year or two when the kids are older and school is over.

The problem with that is these children need help now! I needed to do something that taught my own children the importance of helping others and serving the Lord NOW. I realized I needed to step out of my comfort zone and make any difference I could, TODAY. I rounded up a couple of friends and their kids, and we set up a table in my neighborhood. I figured if we at least made back the money that we put into it I would be happy. But the Lord had much more in store for my little sale and my heart.

As I watched my shy little girl waving down the cars that passed by, people handing me all the money that they had in their wallets, and the neighborhood kids stopping by because they wanted to help, I realized we were doing way more than selling cupcakes. We were building a foundation in our children and our community to help those in need and doing it for the joy of the Lord.

I am happy to send the money we raised to Sixtyfeet and I’m so glad it will be able to help some of the children in Africa, but I believe they helped me so much more. Forevermore I will do all I can for my family and those I can help, no matter if it’s 20 months from now or tomorrow. Our life is a gift from God, what we do with it is our gift to Him. Don’t waste it by waiting for things to get easier.

James 4:13-15 - Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

It truly was a great experience, one that my girls loved and are dying to help with again this year. Today, I'm in the thick of those 20 months I was so scared about, but we are still giving it our all. This year the international cupcake sale is scheduled for May 5th. If you would like to set up your own sale and would like more information contact me or visit the website thecupcakeskids.org If you would be willing to help with mine (I still need lots of help) please let me know. Either way please come by and buy a delicious treat to support this great cause. If there is not a sale near you or you aren't eating cupcakes (like me) you can buy a virtual cupcake to donate to the program. http://www.thecupcakekids.org/cck/mysale.php?refid=1333459293. Thanks for your support and hope to see you on the 5th! More details to come soon!

Happy 1.5 Birthday Bella!

Today my baby is 18 months old. It completely blows my mind that we have reached this milestone as quickly as we did. The day she was born really just seemed like yesterday. I do love this age though. She can get around on her own, she feeds herself, is starting to communicate and potty training is just around the corner. She's no longer my easy baby. She knows how to hold her own with her 2 older sisters and is not afraid to express her feelings. She is crazy about baby dolls and loves to try to do everything Caroline and Summer are doing. Bella can be a little stubborn, but with her adorable little smile, big blue eyes, beautiful olive skin, and bouncing curls she can make just about anyone surrender to her needs. She willingly gives out hugs and kisses, and can be completely comforted as long as she can find the tag of her Baby Suzie and her two middle fingers.

If you recall at the beginning of the year I set myself a goal to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight by this milestone. I gained 50 pounds during my pregnancy with Caroline and was able to hit that goal by the time she was 18 months old. Since I only gained 30 pounds with Bella this goal should be a piece of cake. I would love to tell you that I crushed my goal and am only a few pounds from my complete goal weight, but I'm sad to report that I'm not even close.

I have lost 12 pounds from the beginning of the year, but that still leaves me short of my first goal for the year. I am completely disciplined during the weekday. By the time I'm washing the dishes from dinner I've usually only consumed between 900-1000 calories. On top of that I've spent my day chasing 3-4 little girls, and used their nap time for cleaning my house and doing either cardio or circuit training. The problems come in the evening. If I've had a bad day or the kids have pushed me to the point I want to pull my hair out, the first thing I want when I walk down the stairs after they are all snug in their beds is something sweet. The weekends also spell trouble for me. I have an extremely handsome husband that has worked hard to maintain his health. He should absolutely enjoy a treat or two over the weekend, but it does make it hard for me to not want to join him.

So, am I going to admit defeat and go back to being fat and happy for the rest of my life? No, this may take longer than I had hoped but I will get there. I've found a lot of tools to help me along the way. My buddy Angie recently introduced me to 2 websites that can help me keep up with my calories. www.fatsecret.com and www.myfitnesspal.com. Both of these have databases with the calories for almost all the foods you eat and even menus from restaurants so you can keep up with your daily count each day by entering it in on your home computer or even on your phone. I can even scan the barcodes on the packages of food as I am preparing my snack or meal and all the nutritional information is entered in automatically.

To keep up with my workouts I have found www.logyourrun.com and www.nikeplus.com very helpful. Nike + is programmed on my Ipod so all the information is entered as soon as I plug it in to charge each day without me doing anything. I like the Log your run site because I can enter in my elliptical workouts as well as my strength training daily. I'm also a huge fan of the Jillian Michael's books and workouts. She gives you this formula to help you figure out how many calories you should eat each day if you hope to lose weight. 655+(4.35 X the weight you want to be) + (4.7 X your height in inches) - (4.7 x your age). So for me 655 + (4.35 * 120) + (4.7 * 63) - (4.7 * 33) = 1318 daily. This of course is also based on the fact that you will be active and not just laying on the couch dreaming of the foods you wish you were eating.

I'll keep plugging along and let you know if I find anymore tools and tips. I hope I will have better results for you when I hit my next goal date in July. Good luck to those in the same boat. I know it's not easy.

MBA as I do......not as I say

A while back I was asked if I would be interested in blogging about the day to day experiences in the life of a family with an MBA student for Duke. I was flattered that they would ask me, a stay-at-home mom that wishes Facebook had spell check on it. After some consideration I decided I shouldn't add another task to my life. I feel stretched a little thin with our current situation and I didn't think it was fair to my kids to add something that would take even more time away from them. I also was worried about what my blog might include. Looking back on some of my posts here I realize I don't exactly paint the prettiest picture for an MBA family. Although this time in our lives is probably the hardest we have ever had (and ever hope to have) it's not all bad. I don't want to scare anyone that is possibly considering pursuing a similar degree.

When Brandon and I agreed that he should go back to school I figured it would be a lot of work. Some late nights, weekends away, and a lot of time on my own. I had no idea to what extent that would be until now. My plan for him to just slide by so that he can just get this degree and nothing more was not on his radar. At first I thought my husband was way more of an over-achiever than I ever realized. He has done exceptional well in all his classes. But as I listen to what he learned over the weekend or what his case study is about each week it became clear that he really does love this stuff. It's not about doing better than the guy sitting next to him (although that's nice), he's learning to do something he is extremely passionate about and make it a career. Isn't that what it is all about?!

People ask me all the time, "Don't you wish you would have done this years ago before you got married or had kids?" Really it took us this long to realize what really interests us. If Brandon would have gone for his masters before now it probably would have been in engineering and he would have just continued to dislike his job. If we would have started before kids, sure, it may have been easier, but I don't I think I would have admired all that Brandon was putting into this. I don't think he would have appreciated my efforts in helping him succeed. Before his first day of school I knew there would be a day somewhere along the line of this program where one or both of us snapped. We would reach a point where one of us hit our limit and would completely take it out on the other. It hasn't happened yet, and now I don't think it ever will. Every night we stand in awe of what the other did to get us through the day and there is no reason to complain. We both know how hard the other works and the sacrifices we are making now are so little compared to the future we are preparing for ourselves and our girls.

So go out and do it. Find what you want to do and don't let anything stop you. It's not going to be easy, what good things in life really are? Like they told us at my Duke weekend, you've got to keep reminding yourself this is a short-term sacrifice for a long-term goal.

February is not my diet's friend

I appreciate all the support everyone has given me with my weight loss goals this year. Believe me, it keeps me motivated to know that I have so many people behind me and I certainly don't want to let you down. Since the beginning of the year I have lost 8 pounds, and I am proud of that. Even better I have been able to add mileage to my runs and increase the intensity of my strength training. Last Friday Brandon was home so I was able to go out by myself and take a nice run without the stroller. I set my Ipod for 5 miles. I've only run 5 miles once before, but it was with Brandon and I wasn't about to give up after a few miles and hear him talk about it for the rest of my life. This time the only person to motivate me was myself (and the little lady that told me what mile I was on while I was listening to my music). I honestly don't think I would have gone the entire distance if I hadn't planned it on my tracker from the beginning. but when it was all over I was so happy that I did. I ran it better than I ever could have imagined and feel very confidant that I can reach the 10K race goal this year. Hopefully I can get out there for longer runs more.

This past month I have really kept up my calorie counting. It's very rare that I go over my 1300 count for the day. I've managed to plan ahead and eat light on the day that I know we are going out in the evening. I limit myself to one (if any) after-dinner snacks. This month, however, is going to be a rough one to keep this up. This weekend is the Superbowl. Sure, I can say all day long that I'm going to eat healthy while I watch the game (really the commercials). But Brandon has already said that his diet is off for the day, and it's pretty hard to enjoy your grilled chicken salad with lemon juice while the person next to you chows down on cheesy nachos and buffalo wings. I'm hoping to have some self-control, but Sunday will just be beginning.

My birthday is Tuesday. My sweet Dad has offered to take me and my family out to dinner that night to celebrate and Brandon is taking me out on a birthday date night on Friday. They both told me I could pick the place. Tuesday night has yet to be decided, but for my date night I picked An in Cary. I tried to be reasonable and not pick a place that specializes in their mother's famous fried chicken recipe or a 2000 calorie molten chocolate cake. I checked the menu and the options looked great, but I'm just going to be honest, if I'm paying over $100 for a meal for 2 you better believe I'm going to be licking it clean. And is it really your birthday without a cake? I thought about making myself one that would be light yet curb my craving, but making my own birthday cake reminded me of the time that I saw a movie by myself. I just felt like a complete loser. Maybe we'll just buy a single slice from a restaurant so I'm not eating on it for days.

Just when you think the worst is over 7 days later is Valentine's Day, and 3 days after that is Summer's 3rd birthday. We have a nice party planned for family and her friends. You know I decided to make her a personalized Minnie Mouse birthday cake. I'll try my best to resist the urge to test the frosting multiple times and hope to hang out more with the veggie tray than all the other kid-friendly goodies that I have planned.

We do have a few other events on the calendar, but hopefully they won't be as detrimental to my diet. Thank goodness this is leap year. I'm going to need the extra day to help me avoid major disappointment when I step on the scale in March!

A New Year

Happy New Year. I know my last post was in 2011 and it's almost the end of January, but things have been busy. Our family has been settling in nicely to 2012 and have already began the count down to the end of school. So what's new in 2012? Read on..

Brandon has started back to his studying after a very brief hiatus. He is in Term 3 now and still going strong. Last weekend he attended his 13th residency, which leaves us 12 more to go. He still has many more months ahead, but at least he will be home more towards then end of the year than he was and that is something we are all so looking forward to.

I began working for the first time in almost 3 years. I am watching a 3 month old girl 3.5 days per week. Even though Brandon and I had planned for me to watch another since Summer was born I was worried things would be extremely hectic for at least a little while. Honestly, things are way more manageable than I ever could have imagined. The baby is so easy going. She loves to play with our girls, eats and sleeps like a champ and has just completely fit in with our family perfectly from 8-5 each day. I think our girls are enjoying having a little one around again. Caroline loves trying to show her the way of the world, I can't change a single diaper without Summer opening the tags for me (which has only resulted in a few accidents), and although at first Bella would throw herself on the floor waving her legs up in the air every time she saw me feeding the baby in "her" chair, she has submitted to the change and even handed me her bottle today when it was time to eat.

I am about to sign Summer up for another year of preschool. Bella's birthday is a little too late to begin in the fall so she will be at home with me for another year, but I don't mind. We just signed Caroline up for another season of violin and spring soccer. This will be the first year that she will get to play real games. I'm so excited for her and pity the poor little girl that tries to take the ball away. Caroline had her 100th day of school today, so only 80 more school days until I officially have a 2nd grader!

I think my biggest challenge for this year is to finally meet my goal weight. I hate to admit it, but I am still 10 pounds heavier than I was when I got pregnant with Bella, and even then I had 10 pounds more to go until my goal weight. I know what it takes to lose the weight. I log all my food in a spreadsheet to count my calories. I work out 5-6 times a week by alternating cardio with strength training. It works great, but it always seems after a few weeks I lose my motivation to continue on. I think my problem is that I have always let my trying to lose weight be a secret. Like people don't already know I'm overweight and if I mention I'm on a diet they will think differently of me. I think it will be great motivation to share with everyone my plans and hold myself accountable for the changes I want to make. So here we go:

1. Be back at my pre-pregnancy weight by the time Bella hits 18 months (11 pounds in 10 weeks)

2. Hit my goal weight by July (22 pounds total in 23 weeks)

3. Run a 10K - does anyone know of a good one locally?

OK, it's out there. Everyone knows my plans, so who's with me?!

Bring on 2012!

The Herndons are ready for a new year. 2011 had its ups and downs for us, but anyone that knows me well would know I'm ready to bring this year to a close and move on. This year has been tough on us in just about any way possible, but we survived.

The way we started the New Year was just about how the rest of the year continued. Brandon had a stomach bug that had already hit Caroline, Summer, and me and we welcomed 2011 while Brandon hurled alone in our bedroom and I cared for our kids alone. Foreshadowing for a year with an MBA student? I think so.... On the bright side we had just learned that Brandon was accepted into one of the best MBA programs in the country at Duke University. I personally think my husband is brilliant, but he joked that he wanted to pay his tuition as soon as possible before Duke realized they made a mistake in his acceptance.

We tried to keep the kids busy. Caroline got to try out some new sports. She played T-ball and tennis for the first time, and she began violin lessons. Summer took a few classes at the Apex community center, and started her first year in preschool at Salem Baptist on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Bella keeps herself busy all on her own. This is the year she met all of her first year milestones. She learned to crawl, then walk, to feed herself, and say a few words. My easy baby has turned into quite a wild woman in the last 12 months.

I would say the highlight of the year was taking our kids to Disney World for a week. We rented a private home 2 miles from the park. My Dad was able to stay with us for the first 2 nights to get us settled in and help us learn how to maneuver 3 children through miles of attractions. Caroline rode every ride she was tall enough for (which only didn't include about 2). Summer fell in love with Mickey and Minnie, and Bella was just happy that if she wasn't being constantly pushed around in a stroller than someone was holding her. The girls had a ball and Brandon and I came home exhausted, but with memories that will stay with us forever.

The return from our trip was the start of the downhill spiral of 2011. Bella was running a very high fever so after a 10 hour car ride I got to make my first trip to the ER after 6 years of being a mom. After waiting for 2 hours with a sick baby they sent me home with a dose of motrin and a $800 bill. In retrospect the bill was not an issue since this was not our only visit to the hospital this year. Summer got very sick, Caroline had to have pencil lead removed from her face, and I had to have my gallbladder removed (among other things).

Two weeks later the real fun began. Brandon received his first fedex packet of books from the Duke MBA program. His pre-reading began and life hasn't been the same since. The 2nd half of 2011 has mostly involved Brandon's nose being in a book and me alone with 3 children. We have found a few moments here and there to spend together, but I do miss my husband. The program has taught us both a lot about ourselves. We have had to push ourselves so far beyond our comfort zones that we had no idea the things that we are capable of. I am way more than just a stay-at-home mom that cooks and cleans, and can multi-task like no body's business. Brandon has learned that he really does have every right to attend a top university and has surprised a lot of people (including himself) by how well he can hang and excel with the country's top professionals in school.

So here we are, hours away from 2011 being behind us. In just writing this blog I've realized the year hasn't been all bad. We've had some pretty good times, and learned some great lessons, but it's been tough and I'm ready to look ahead. Let's be honest, 2012 isn't going to be a piece of cake. Brandon still has another 12 months of school. I am going to begin work for the first time in almost 3 years. And the girls aren't exactly going to start raising themselves. I know that this next year will have its challenges as well, but 2012 is the light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm so ready!