A Year in the Life of Krystal

Employing the Unemployed

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 07:07:00 +0000

My last day of employment with T-Mobile USA was September 27, 2010. And by some strange twist of fate, my first day of work in my new job will be on September 26, 2011. One year of unemployment. One year of sleeping in, staying up late, following my own agenda. And along with that, one year of counting every penny, of being careful and worrying about the unexpected expenses. And here is how my journey to employment came to an end.

August 9th: Job Notification from Oregon Employment Department
Business & Employment Specialist 1
(Unemployment Insurance Claims Service Representative) (ID: 807670)
Experience: At least 2 years
Location: Bend
Wage Offered: $2,585.00 to $3,727.00 per Month
Hours per week: 40

August 17th: Completed the online job application and submitted it.
Thank you for your application.Employment with the state is more than just a job – it is a profession. Serving our families, friends, and neighbors across this beautiful state is a privilege. Working for the state of Oregon is an honorable choice and we are glad you are considering a career in public service.

August 24th: Received an email that I met the job qualifications
"It appears you have sufficient education or experience to meet the minimum qualifications for the position and your application has been accepted."

August 30th: I get a call to set up a job interview for September 6th.

September 6th: Job interview (I didn't think it went well)
Good news: I have an interview today for a great paying position with the state unemployment agency. Bad news: I've lost so much weight that my "interview" suit is hanging off me like a potato sack and doesn't look very professional. September 6 at 9:57am (Facebook Update)
Bad feeling in my tummy, I don't think it was meant to be. Onward to Mexico! September 6 at 12:09pm (Facebook Update)

September 13th: Received an email that I've passed to the final step; Criminal Records Check

September 19th: I passed the Criminal Records check

September 21st: The official call that I was being offered the position!

September 26th: I report for my first day of training :)

So I'm happy to report that after one year of unemployment, I will be reporting to the office of employment to help other people in the exact same shoes that I have walked in for the last year. I am very thankful for this opportunity, for this ability to be able to provide for my family again, especially as José faces the yearly lay-off in November. Last year was a very lean one for us and I'm looking forward to what this will mean for our family. And lastly, the medical coverage so that we can finally take him to a specialist to see what could be wrong with his throat. I have been working and reworking the monthly budget ever since I got the call, I just so excited!

Celebrating "El Grito"

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 06:21:00 +0000

If you are anything like 95% of Americans out there, you believe that Cinco de Mayo is Mexico's day of Independence. After all, we call ours the 4th of July more often than we refer to it as Independence Day so why shouldn't it be the same? Cinco de Mayo is actually just the Americans excuse for drinking obscene amounts of Corona and tequila and gorging themselves on the taco bar down at the local Mexican restaurant. The restaurant fully supports this belief because it is really about the money and commercialism is where it's at. Cinco de Mayo is actually a celebration of the Day of the Battle of Puebla which happens to be the area where we will be moving to if it comes down to that. The United States owes its thanks to Mexico for our own independence but I'll let you educate yourself on that over at Wikipedia. Getting back to Mexico's true Independence Day, September 16th, 1810.

The celebrations begin the night before on September 15th with "El Grito" which means "the Cry." Watching it on television this year reminded me of the millions of Americans who gather around their televisions and watch the ball drop in Times Square on New Years Eve. We had hoped that one of the local organizations was going to plan something for El Grito but nobody seemed to know anything. José mentioned that they normally organize a futbol tournament and it's followed by food and games for the kids. I didn't have the time or energy to plan a large scale event on my own so we decided to do something in our home this year.

We purchased two piñatas for the kids during the Festival of Cultures on Saturday. Mia picked out a Dora one and Erika got a Tangled one, each one cost $12 and the ladies were actually making them while sitting at their booth during the festival. I stuffed them full with nine bags of the candy I brought home from Mexico and a few peanuts. They got pretty heavy and the dang wire coming out of the top is just straight so that was fun hanging it up later on in the evening.

My beloved wonder babysitter made a special Dora cake for the party along with a tray of mini cupcakes that looked like the Mexican flag, all the way down to the eagle holding the serpent in the middle! She made an awesome Chola Dora cake for a friend's costume party so I knew this special order would be a piece of "cake" for her too, ha ha! The two separate cakes actually worked out really well for us because it was easier to pass around the tray of cupcakes and offer one to everyone than try to cut up Dora and find enough plates and forks left over. So at the end of the night, Dora was in one piece in the kitchen for us to enjoy the next day.

While we were planning the party, José sat down with a menu of what type of food, side dishes, and condiments would be needed. As each family or person was invited, the food list was divvied up so it wouldn't fall solely on us to provide everything when we were expecting 30+ guests. We ended up having tinga, pozole de puerco, pozole de pollo, flautas, fruit salad, beans and rice, ambrosia fruit salad, Jamie's grape, pecan, and cream cheese salad that I adore so much, and all the condiments to go with every dish. By the end of the night, the only thing remaining was some of the pozole de pollo, fruit salad, and the leftover vegetable condiments. José and I didn't even get a chance to eat anything of the food except I scored on half the bowl of Jamie's grape salad. The secret is to not put a serving spoon in your favorite dishes and then people have a hard time getting it onto their plates to eat, ha!

The weather was not cooperating with me at all! I had originally set up the canopy in the front yard with the tables underneath it and chairs scattered randomly around the yard. Instead the cold fall breezes decided to set in, blow over the canopy before I staked it down, and essentially chase all of our guests inside to our very small living room. After an hour or so, I didn't have enough room to put all the food out so I lined up the tables in the driveway and took all the food out there and eventually, everyone got the idea.

The hardest part for me was definitely trying to coordinate the flow of everything while at the same time trying to keep up two conversations in English and Spanish so none of our guests felt left out. We had invited several new people to the house from José's work and I didn't want anyone to feel left out or clueless with the babble of languages flowing around them.

We strung the piñatas up on the playground set and divided the kids up into two groups; those 7 years and under and those 8 years and over. My thought was that this way the big kids wouldn't overwhelm the little kids so they could have a chance at candy, etc. Nope, as soon as that first piñata broke, everyone was all over everything and my plans went up in smoke. I handed out ziploc baggies and it looked like everyone got plenty of sugar to get them hyped up. The piñatas were not very strong though, they busted right open and some children didn't even get a chance at bat. Erika has gotten pretty good at smashing them too.

As the night cooled off and it got darker, the remaining guests trickled back inside and we watched the ceremonies take place in Mexico, two hours ahead of our schedule so it was 9pm here and 11pm in Mexico City. José opened up a bottle of Don Ramon and passed it around. It seems to be the most popular tequila that I bring home on my trips. It was nice to finally sit down and chat with our friends during the last couple hours and not have to worry about anything beyond the cleaning disaster but I knew that it would be waiting for me in the morning regardless :) Viva Mexico!

Weigh-In Wednesday: Half Way There

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 20:54:00 +0000

Wow, a lot has changed in few months and so has my body. I've reached some personal milestones and celebrated some goals as well. On May 11, 2011 I weighed in at 162.2 lbs, not the personal limit that I had set for myself of 160 lbs without dieting. So I decided that my resolution this year to love myself without diets or exercise just didn't seem to be working for me. On July 1st, I started Dan Pearce's Biggest Loser competition weighing in at 156.4 lbs. And now eleven weeks later, I have broken through new barriers and I currently weigh 144 lbs, the lowest that I can ever remember weighing. I'll be honest though, I didn't grow up with a scale in the bathroom so I don't have any memories of being any certain weight. When you watch the weight loss shows, they always talk about not being that weight since junior high or high school or age 16, etc. I know that I was just average and unhappy.

September 2009 160ish lbs

If you remember back to this time two years ago, I was starting with a new team at T-Mobile and one of my pod mates talked me into running. I ran daily from September 2009 until my first half marathon in June 2010 and which point, I was weighing in at 148.4 lbs. At then, I just stopped. I hated running and it wasn't worth it to me. By May 2011, I was right back up where I had started from, all that time and energy lost. I have been eliminated from the Biggest Loser competition but I'm still continuing on my weight loss journey. Yesterday I weighed in at 144 lbs, a new milestone for me. I still have a spare time and a 35" waist so I'm going to continue on towards my goal of 130 lbs give or take a couple.

September 2011 144 lbs

My belly doesn't hang over my belt anymore. I can see the definition in my abdomen slowly starting to come out. I am doing less cardio work now and more strength training to burn off those last few pounds of fat that I have sitting around my midsection, thighs, and buttocks. After three children, my stomach muscles are pretty stretched out but I still want to do as much as I can before I consider assistance like liposuction and plastic surgery. I don't feel "fat" anymore, I feel great. In fact, I feel so great about how I look that I took a couple/few weeks off and a couple pounds crept back on but it wasn't anything that I couldn't drop in a week or focusing. Now it's time to refocus again and knock out these last few inches. I am starting the P90X Lean version and see if I can't reach my goal in the next 90 days. Stay tuned because this hot mama is ready to make her grand appearance!

July 2011: Start of Competition @ 156 lbs

September 2011: Out of the Competition @ 144 lbs

A Political Fast

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 03:09:00 +0000

Have you ever felt so strongly about something that you were willing to sacrifice all food and drink for 24 hours of your life without changing anything else? Giving up breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all those snacks in between for a cause that meant something to your soul? Today was spent in a fast all day in honor of "Starving for Justice, a Fight for Immigrant Rights in the USA." I only stumbled across it last night on Facebook when a fellow exile posted that he had 29 minutes to go before the fast. I do like to jump into things last minute it seems! All I am having today is 3-4 bottles of water and one packet of Special K protein mix that I drank right after my workout at the gym.

There has not been one day in my life that I didn't have sufficient food and nutrition for my body. I have a headache and I feel lightheaded and definitely not energetic enough to continue exerting myself as the afternoon fades to night. I can't imagine how this must feel on an extended basis. Yet day in and day out, there are thousands of immigrants across the United States who aren't receiving the basic care and nutrition that is guaranteed to them under the Geneva Convention. There are husbands and fathers, mothers and daughters going without medical treatment, access to legal counsel, for days, months, and years on end. Private prisons are making upwards of $200 per day per prisoner and people are dying. We're not asking for the doors to be let wide open for them, we're asking that they be given the same human rights as everyone else. To be treated in a humane and fair manner while given access to legal counsel, communication with family and friends, and prompt medical attention as needed. We don't need another Roberto Martinez-Medina dying in another detention facility for people to pay attention and ask questions. The time is now. What will you do to help support the cause? Look for us on Facebook and pledge to go without food and drink one day each week until something changes.

A Little about Me

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 05:35:00 +0000

Just when I can't get any farther behind in my blog and the list of draft posts are adding up, I get another challenge to complete. Thankfully this one isn't taking me weeks to complete like my upcoming 7 Links post. So thanks to some prompting by Lisa over at From One Country to Another, here is a little about me and I hope you'll share a little about you too!

1. How long have you been with your husband?

First date: January 18, 2007
Married: August 19, 2009
Still going strong at 4 1/2 years!

2. Can you remember one funny miscommunication because of language barriers?

Please, this happens on a daily basis. When he starts to tell me a story, I tell him that he can't use any pronouns because I always get confused when he tries to tell me that "el dio a ella que no pudo ayudarle con ellas" and this is supposed to mean "he told his aunt that he couldn't help her move the chickens" or something silly like that. I get so frustrated trying to pay attention and ask the right questions and he gets frustrated that I don't know what he's telling me.

3. What state / and or city have you relocated to?

We have lived in four different houses in the same town and now, our fifth house, is our permanent home here in the United States, our Habitat home. When we make our temporary move south, it will be to the state of Tlaxcala and there we'll stay until we figure out what our future holds. If it's going to be a year or longer, we'll make some road trips until the right place calls our name and we'll settle there.

4. Do you and your hubby have any children, How old?

I have two daughters, AshLee (18) and Erika (8) and we have Mia (3) together. He has Michel (9) and Anthony (4) which is why we made the choice for me to fix that reproductive issue, five mouths is plenty!

5. What is one thing that your blogger friends don't know about you?

Not too much I'm sure since I prefer to be a pretty open book. Oh yes, when I was a small child, I remember eating my first taste of meat in Governor Brown's office in Sacramento, California during a sit-in with my mother. One of her friends took us to the cafeteria to eat and they didn't realize we were vegetarians so I ate some breakfast sausage. During this same summer, my mother was arrested while we were doing a road blockade at a nuclear power plant on the coast of California and my little sister Kara got her picture in the newspaper handing a flower to a police officer. I remember a famous singer having his birthday in the jail where the activists were held and we passed a cake through the fence to them, somehow.

6. What are some of your favorite hobbies or past times?

I can live anywhere in the world as long as I have access to my scrapbooking supplies and I can continue to journal my family's history in my many 12" x 12" scrapbooks. I also enjoy cross-stitching when it doesn't make my eyes cross, I love photography, international travel, and I really want to learn how to make stained glass. I actually just bought a beginner's book at Barnes & Noble today!

7. How did you stumble upon the blogging community?

I started blogged in 2003 when I was deployed to Iraq. I wanted a way to share my story with all of my friends and family because I didn't have the internet access and ability to write to multiple people. Upon my return, I continued blogging and as it gained popularity, I would surf for blogs of people in similar situations or interests.

8. Have you learned something new about yourself during this whole process that has changed all of our lives?

I learned that I am braver than 90% of America. I'm not afraid to travel to new places and see new sights and take my children to experience a new world. I never realized how people truly viewed Mexico until I told them that I drive there, travel there every few months, and usually have one or two little girls in tow.

9. Something that you love about Mexico and something that you can't stand or miss living without.

I love the food.
I love the simplicity of life.
I hate the lack of common sense when dealing with companies and their services.
I am going to miss my freedom to get in my car and drive anywhere I want whenever I want for whatever reason I have.

10. Did you know your in-laws before moving and has it been a big adjustment being closer to them?

I haven't moved yet but I traveled to Mexico for the 2nd time (1st time being a cruise in 2005) when Mia was 4 mos old so she could meet her father's family. Since that time, I have traveled down six more times and his family loves me like a daughter, his grandma cries when it's time for us to leave, and his family have welcomed us with open arms, and accepted Erika as if she were his flesh and blood child as well. We won't be living with his mother but we will be living with his sister and her family until we get on our feet and I adore them, for the most part!

11. If you were going back to the states next week, where is the first place you would go, of course after seeing your family?

I wonder what I'm going to miss about being here. I think it wil be returning to my bedroom so I can lie down on my beautiful bed that we won't be hauling to Mexico with us. Then it would be somewhere for ice cream. If there was a Cracker Barrel in my area, that would be my first stop.

Weigh-In Wednesday: Dead Standstill

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 05:34:00 +0000

Unfortunately the scale has continued to wage its silent psychological battle against my willpower. I get tiny little bits of movement up and down but ultimately, I am remaining right around the same point, this last weigh in being 150.6 lbs which placed me below the yellow line. Thankfully it is a double elimination so I still have one more chance to stay in the competition for the grand prize. This week I was also bumped and I'm no longer the 2nd lightest person in the game, I'm now 3rd.

First stop this afternoon was spending an hour in the gym while the girls were visiting Grandma. I did a half hour on the stationary bike and burned a whopping 110 calories which equals 4.5 marshmallows. Then I did another half hour on the stair machine and burned another 131 calories which equals 5 marshmallows. It really puts it into perspective when you think about all the work that has to be done to burn one tiny little morsel of sugar! To help the time pass by as quickly as possible, I come equipped with my Kindle where I'm currently engrossed in reading the class The Count of Monte Cristo, fascinating story! I have a fitness magazine of some kind if I get discouraged by the zero rewards for all my hard work. My bodybugg display so I can watch the calories slowly add up. A bottle of water to keep me properly hydrated and my cell phone to keep up with Facebook, log my workouts into Cardio Trainer, listen to music (Sheryl Crowe, 3 Doors Down, Wisin y Yandel, Chris Cagle, Darius Rucker, etc), and missing in this pic is the sweat towel to catch the drops as they fall from my elbow.

After all this exercise, I picked the girls up from Mom's house and we went to hike Pilot Butte. Jose jogged up the hill pushing Mia in the stroller while Erika whined her way up the hill and held me back. I need to start doing this every night because the temperature is mild, slight breeze, not quite as much traffic, and it wears the girls out before bedtime!

At the bottom of the hill, I finally got the opportunity to take part in the "planking" craze that is happening every where. I completely don't partake of the idea that it is derogatory towards African-Americans. It is a common yoga pose and great on the abs! I don't care for the hungry butt aspect of the photo but oh well, I'm not going back out to do it again. I tried to get Erika to do it with me but she was afraid of falling through the bars :) Then we came home, turned off the lights in the livingroom, lit some candles, and do the Crunch: Candelight Yoga video on Netflix. Erika managed to finish it all, I was pooped about halfway through.

Weigh-In Wednesday: Target Heart Rate

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 05:03:00 +0000

If you don't see much a change from last week to this week, it's because there isn't much. I only dropped one pound and I felt like I was fighting for every little bit of it. The scale was waging a vicious battle against my mental sanity, taunting me to give up and adding on a couple pounds in the mornings. I'd spend the first couple hours of every day trying to squeeze every little drop out of my bladder and stripping off my clothes to weigh myself over and over again. I took Saturday and Sunday "off" to regather my forces and continue on with the battle. I'm so close to gaining that second goal and earning another reward for my hard work. I just need to change things up here.

A friend in our Biggest Loser group said that I need to exercise for at least 25 minutes at 60-70% of my target heart rate. What in the heck is that?? I see the option on the cardio machines and I always grab the handle and watch the numbers jump all over the place, never quite matching what I think I'm feeling. So back to google and find out what my target heart rate is supposed to be. It doesn't get much easier than subtracting my age from 220 and multiplying by .6 and .7 to get my target heart rate of 110-128. Geez, why didn't I know that sooner? That is the fat burning zone that I need to maintain as opposed to the higher cardio zone that I normally run at.

Mom took both girls for a couple hours this afternoon so I took advantage of the child-free opportunity to hit Pilot Butte. My goal was to go up and down twice as quickly as possible. Cardio Trainer said it was actually 4.66 miles in 1:08 for 429 calories. The extra .66 mile must come from me running all the way back to my car for a drink of water after the first round as well as circling the whole top when I reach it. I walked at a good pace all the way up and then ran down all the way to the car and then walked at a slower pace back up it again and walked back down. By the time I finished and reached my car, my thighs were just shaking with exhaustion, that's something new for me. Even after I ran the half-marathon, my legs didn't feel that bad so I must be really out of shape. All in all, it's time to push on and next week you better be seeing my digits in the 140's!!

Weigh-In Wednesday: Slowly But Surely

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 21:45:00 +0000

I feel great! Some days the scale goes in the wrong direction and gets me frustrated and discouraged but I just focus harder and keep on trying. I can't give up, it means way too much to me. I am coming up on my old plateau again, breaking that 150 lb barrier and then pushing beyond it to the next one. Dan posted the weight loss results for Group 1 on Monday and I was third position, but only by .01% and others were right below that so it's a tough competition. I did complete the poem for the first challenge and had a one pound advantage. I believe that almost everyone completed the challenge too. So without any more stalling; here's my poem about what weight means to me.

Ode to the Tire

When I was a young child,
You were never around.
My weight loss concerns were very mild,
My feet to the scale were not bound.

In the twenty years since that age,
Three babies have come and gone.
And now you're a constant reminder
Of the damage that's been done

The view from the front
Isn't all that bad.
But I turn to the side
And my joy turns to sad.

Ten years in the Army
And you wouldn’t let go.
Mile after mile, sit-up and sit-up,
You were just going with the flow.

I try to tuck you into my clothes
And sometimes even forget you’re there.
Then I glance down
The ever-present nightmare.

Father lying in a coma,
Facebook and food, you are my friend.
Cafeteria is cheap and so good,
Food is a means to an end.

He checked in a huge old man,
And left us just a shadow of himself.
I won’t go out the same way,
Time to focus on my health.

My husband loves to rub you,
Grab you, squeeze you, poke you.
The girls like to point at you,
Tease you, touch you, love you.

I’ve even tried to cut you off,
Plastic surgeons I’ve seen two,
The breasts we can’t help you
But the tummy we can do.

The price tag was steep,
And my wanderlust bigger,
The insurance money could go
To bills looming larger.

The pounds dropped off
And still you were there.
I was hot in that little red dress,
Yet you stuck out of nowhere.

So the time has come to say adieu,
good-bye, adios, and so long.
At the end of all this,
I want to wear a Brazilian thong.

This week's challenge is to post our daily exercise workouts to the wall and participate in posts, comments, etc. This is no problem for the majority of us chatty folk, ha ha. I did start doing the P90X program and started off with the Ab Ripper X yesterday with Jose and then died about 17 minutes into Yoga X so that's my goal for today. We've been finding lots of workout videos on Netflix too so that helps create a variety. I also pulled out my two Biggest Loser workout videos and brushed the dust off their never opened covers, oops! The girls and I walked all the way to the theatre and back yesterday for the $1 movies so that added 3 miles to my routine. I'm trying to find every little way to burn just a few more calories but I'm still fighting to hit the 2400 calorie mark. I'm only eating about 1000 calories a day so I might make some changes there and try to substitute in some more protein, I love me some peanut butter!

Weigh-In Wednesday: An Ounce Vs An Ounce

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 05:45:00 +0000

We had our official weigh-in on Friday July 1st and I weighed in at 156.4 lbs so I lost a little bit of weight before we got started. Some of the people in the group were saying goodbye to all their favorite foods and pigging out but I just can't do that to my body. Each pound I gain is another one I have to work off and while I want to win this contest, I really just want to lose this weight and get healthy and slim.
My group 1 started out something like this:

Female 171.8
Female 176.2
Female 211.4
Male 259.9
Female 165.6
Female 205.5
Me 156.4
Female 138.0
Female 184.2
Female 172.1
Female 162.0
Female 189.5

As you can see, I am the second smallest female in the group. Some of these gals are tall though, one gal in our other group is over 6' tall so that's more room to spread out the weight. I just look short and squat so no excuses for me. My goal in this contest is 130 lbs which means 16.9% is my weight loss percentage that I'm aiming for. Every morning when I jump my naked booty onto that bathroom scale, it is slowly creeping down .4-.6 of a pound. Last Wednesday, I weighed in at 157.8 and this morning I weighed in at 154.2 so that's 3.6 pounds in one week! Now, only 2.2 pounds of that counts in the competition but I'll take it! I've earned the first reward so Jose is taking me shopping at Victoria's Secret for my new bra(s) on Friday after work. I don't normally drop this much weight and the only thing I'm doing differently is eating more veggies/fruits and drinking 8 glasses of water religiously.

Now it's not all play and no work over in competitionland either. For the first week's challenge, each contestant has to write a 48 line poem about how we feel in regards to our weight. It's harder than it sounds, I can't seem to get past the first 8 lines. We have to post it to the group by the first weigh-in on Monday the 11th for a one-pound advantage. Since I'm one of the lightest people, that will give me a .64% advantage to help keep me above the yellow line. So next week you can look forward to seeing my poetic effort ha ha.

We took Mia to eat an ice cream at Goody's a couple days ago and discovered that they have self-serve frozen yogurt now with tons of toppings. Since it said nonfat, I asked the clerk if she had the nutritional information on hand so she pulled out a binder with pages for each of the different flavors. I tasted Mia's Luscious Lemon and it was pretty tasty for nonfat. She didn't end up finishing it off so I ate about half a cup and that was 100 calories, not bad. We decided to return this evening and take Erika along so she could check it out. I was all prepared to reward myself with a dessert as well and packed along the kitchen scale in my purse. I remembered to zero out my scale with the cup on it and prepared myself. My thinking was that I could afford an 8 ounce treat since I'd been working so hard and always have a 1000 calorie deficit each night. As I was eating this huge bowl of deliciousness, it dawned on me that when they said a serving is 4 ounces, they were referring to fluid ounces, not weight. I had served myself 8 ounces, half a pound of frozen yogurt. Their 4 ounces was only 83 grams so I had to come home and do the math to find out how many grams are in an ounce, etc. It turns out that I ate 2.76 servings so that bowl was 276 calories. Thankfully it wasn't a horrible disaster but it taught me to pay attention to what type of ounces are in a serving and measure them appropriately.

Post It Note Tuesdays: Keeping Busy

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 06:52:00 +0000

Your Words Hurt My Soul

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 03:03:00 +0000

Every time there is a pro-immigration story published anywhere in the world, the comments that follow are negative, racist, angry, riddled with hate, and directed towards people they've never met. The internet allows these "trolls" as we call them to pull the white hoods out of the closet and sit in front of their computers insulting and damning people left and right. In general, I skip right past the comments and just share the articles. Until yesterday. The New York Daily News published an article yesterday about my friends, women I've met that share my story, my struggle, my heartache, my hopes, and my joys. It was titled American-born wives married to U.S. deported or banned spouses band together via online networks and it has been the best article I've read yet about our story. This time I scrolled down and read the only four comments that had been posted at that time and I was in tears. Why? I don't know why I give these trolls the power to put me in tears with their insults. They talk about how "disgusting" I must be to marry down, how "proud" my parents must be at whom I've married, that women will marry anything, including a ham sandwich... Damn straight, I love my ham sandwich and there is nothing in the world that is going to come between us.

So following the lead of my fabulous friend Emily over at The Real Housewife of Ciudad Juarez, here are the top 25 reasons why I love my ham sandwich.

For saving me when I was about to marry a selfish, uneducated, poor mannered white guy who didn't place his children or his woman ahead of anything, once leaving me to sit in the truck in the middle of winter with my daughter for an hour and a half while he attended a meeting because he didn't want to be kept waiting for me to return when he finished.
For working two jobs when necessary to pay the bills and never using any type of state assistance.
For admitting his faults and working with me year after year so that he can become a better person and a better father to his stepdaughter and our daughter.
For accepting that I don't share the same religious views as he, for loving my crazy-nonbelieving-self even as he kisses his Jesus every night and blesses the family.
For being the most awesome cook ever who can whip up a delicious meal out of nowhere.
For learning how to be a healthier person by cooking with olive oil, reducing the fat intake, and eating less than 200 tortillas a week. Some day he might even stop putting salt on his fruit too.
For loving my less-than-perfect-after-3-children body, for sharing his calor with me even when I'm sitting in tears and holding my tire.
For not being machisimo when I earned twice as much money and the car and house were all in my name.
For showing me what true love was all about after numerous abusive relationships with the white guys "I should have married", for making me believe that I could be loved for who I was, not what I wasn't.
For making ours the best and greenest lawn on the block while the neighbor has to rip hers out and start all over again.
For being the best housekeeper I've ever met, for cooking/cleaning/washing the dishes/folding the clothes/fill in the blank and all the other chores that I hate to do.
For embracing the gym even though he had never been in one and working out daily to give me that hot hot body that I get to love every night.
For calling his mom and his grandma and his sons on a weekly if not daily basis and showing me that he truly knows what it means to place family first.
For making the scariest and bravest decision of his life to come here and make a better life for himself.
For sharing all of his traditions and culture with me so that we can create a well-balanced family and traditions that enriched our lives and that of those around us.
For accepting my mental illness (is PTSD considered mental illness these days or what?) and going to therapy with me every single time even when he is exhausted after work.
For encouraging me to do the volunteer things I like and participating in the free English classes that I offer in my home even though he probably needs the most help.
For not getting mad at my disaster in the garage even though he's been dying to park the car in there during the cold winter months for the last four years.
For trying fancy, new restaurants with me even though he is completely outside of his comfort zone.
For allowing me to traipse off all over the world with my wanderlust and never telling me I have to stay home like a good little wife should.
For fearing for my safety and sanity when we move to Mexico this fall, for worrying that I won't be happy living a "more basic" lifestyle and giving up everything that we've worked so hard together for.
For daring to plan for one month or one year down the road when he's never been allowed to before.
For believing that there is a better life ahead of us where we can all be together in love and harmony no matter the zip code or codigo postal.
For telling me that he'll work two or three jobs to pay for a tummy tuck if that is what really will make me happy with my body.
For completing me, for being my better half, for making me feel alive like never before.

Me hace falta Jose, para ahora y siempre, te amo mucho.

Update: To read other 25 Reasons I Love...

My Ham Sandwich by Sarah B.-M.

Mi Torta de Jamon by Thalia

il mio panino al prosciutto e formaggio by Amy
Lonches La Guera by Rhonda
Teamo Mucho Mi Torta De HAmon by Sue
The World's Best "Sandwich" by Corin
my "turkey on rye" by Beth
My Ham Sandwich by Becca
My Footlong Sub Sandwich by Lisa
My Ham Sandwich by Sarah F

and the numerous others that were posted to our FB group Waiting on a Miracle by those who don't have blogs. You ladies are beautiful, strong, brave, and powerful and you fill me with joy, hope, and laughter on a daily basis!

Weigh In Wednesday: Baring It All

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:18:00 +0000

It's time to put my money where my mouth is, $70 to be exact. My husband is getting better looking and in better shape with every week that goes by. When he is emotionally upset, he doesn't turn to food, he turns to his routines; work and gym. With all the events of June, I dropped down to 154# and then jumped right back up to 161#. I didn't get the time to go shopping for my 155# reward which is a good thing, now I can earn it and keep dropping.

You might remember me mentioning Dan Pearce and his blog Single Dad Laughing in December when I wrote a couple posts about fathers; mine (The "Dad" in My Life) and my daughters (My Daughters "Dads"). He has gotten pretty darn famous pretty damn fast with his words of wisdom. When I started following his blog all those months ago, I never thought I'd find myself in the current situation. He is hosting an online version of the Biggest Loser. And this time I am putting my money where my mouth is. The buy in was $70 so I managed to quietly figure out which credit card still had that much available credit left on it. I couldn't use the bank card or Jose would figure out that I was up to something.
The rules go something like this:
1. 12 contestants each pay in $70 and have between 15-40 pounds to lose
2. Two players fall below the yellow line each week (just like on the show)
3. The second time you fall below the yellow line, it is automatic elimination
4. There are weekly challenges created by Dan
5. There are at-home winners too for the eliminated contestants
6. The Biggest Loser wins $500 and the At-Home Loser wins $200

Dan created a group on Facebook for the contestants from both groups and these people are hilarious! Group 1 is the 15-40 pound group and Group 2 is the 15-?? pound group. There are only two men participating and the women are holding strong. One other contestant is actually from the Portland, Oregon area too so that's pretty dang cool. The age range and size is all across the board but I'm really looking forward to getting to know everyone better over the next few weeks/months. Of course, I still intend to whoop some ass and walk away with that $500. I haven't told Jose about it because I want to do this on my own and surprise him with the money. He has been so stressed out about the move to Mexico and the hundreds of dollars that it is going to cost for his immigration appointment in Juarez, $400 for the medical exam alone, not to mention a week in a secure hotel and the gas to get us to Puebla afterwards. I'm doing this for my family.
First official weigh-in is this Friday.....so I walked Pilot Butte with the girls to get it started!

Post It Note Tuesdays: Playing Catch-Up

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 21:50:00 +0000

Old Faithful and the Junior Ranger Programs

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 05:51:00 +0000

I was reminded again of why I don't go on vacation with my mother. She woke us up at 6:30am park time so we could go out and see the animals! I grew up in Alaska around most of the animals that live here in the park, it doesn't excite me so much that I want to get out of bed at that early to go find them. My body still feels like it's on Oregon time and the sun hasn't even come up there yet. Mom's plan was to drive all the park today and make the huge circuit between all the different visitor centers and sights. We enjoyed a quick breakfast of Go-Gurt, banana, and granola bar?! We came across a black bear beside the road along with a female Park Ranger trying to keep all the people in their cars and not parked in the middle of the road since it was on a downhill corner.

Next up was a large male bison walking down the road in our lane. They look pretty mangy this time of year with their winter coats in mats and dangling off them. Erika and Mia got an activity book at dinner last night and one of the activities is to collect free stickers at 4 out of 5 lodge/visitor centers in the park. We collected the first sticker here at the Roosevelt lodge gift shop. We stopped at Tower Falls and walked down as far as we could but we weren't able to see anything from the bottom due to trail construction.

At the Canyon Lodge, we collected the second sticker along with some purchases. I got Mia a pair of lab created opal heart shaped earrings since she's been without for a few months. Each of the girls picked out a Yellowstone patch for me to iron onto their backpacks and I got a sticker to put in my scrapbook. We made a few more stops along our way at the South Rim and vista sights. And then we got cell phone reception and our phones started beeping away with messages, I had 13 in all. Mia had already fallen asleep but I called to say hi to my sweetie and check in on him.

Our second to last stop of the day was at Old Faithful. We arrived about an hour before it was set to erupt so we had lunch in the parking lot. I treated us to an ice cream in the lodge and that single scoop in a dish was HUGE! The workers must not have been very well trained because the single scoop overflowed the dish and each one was different sized from one customer to the next. And I got a scoop of Pecan Praline instead of Peanut Butter Chip but I was hungry and not in the mood to get back in line to correct their mistake.

We only had to wait around 10-15 minutes for the geyser to start the show. It was interesting to learn how they calculate the approximate time that the geyser will erupt again. If the eruption lasts less than 2.5 minutes, it will erupt in approximately 60 minutes. If the eruption lasts longer than 2.5 minutes, it will erupt in approximately 93 minutes, very interesting fact. After the eruption, we walked over to the original Lodge and it was just beautiful.

It is several stories tall and the insides are covered in thousands of small poles. We got our smashed pennies in the gift store along with a story book about a crippled bear written by the author who was in the lobby so the girls were able to get their book autographed.
The new Old Faithful Visitor Center had recently opened up so we went to explore it. They opened up a children's section called the Young Scientist and there was a ranger inside setting up a table with information on how to become a Junior Ranger or Young Scientist. Even though Erika earned her Junior Ranger badge last year, she got the one with a wolf print for the 5-7 year old group and this year she could do it all over again and earn the Junior Ranger badge with a bear print on it for the 8-12 year old group.

So we spent the rest of the afternoon trying to help her complete all of the necessary activities in the book and then race across the park to attend a Ranger presentation back at Canyon Lodge so she could complete that requirement as well. Then it was back to the cabin for dinner and relaxation.

Entering Yellowstone National Park

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 06:32:00 +0000

First my phone alarm went off at 8am and I had to crawl out of bed to turn it off. Why do I have an alarm set when it's summer vacation? Housekeeping knocked on our door at 9am so we took it as our cue to roll out of bed. We missed the complimentary continental breakfast so we headed next door to Winco to get our grocery shopping done. Today included another 6-7 hour drive to the gate for the west entrance into Yellowstone. I keep forgetting to take my benefits letter from the VA into a Forest Service office and apply for a lifetime pass to the state and national parks.

We stopped at a rest area to make some turkey sandwiches and let the girls out to stretch their legs and play in the grass. We made it to the park entrance just after 5pm. It is $25 for a seven day pass into the park. When we rolled down the window to pay the cashier, mosquitos were swarming all over in a cloud. Mom was trying to bat them away from the window while paying her. I made the mistake about asking about the veterans pass and allowing more mosquitos to come in.

We saw lots of buffalo all over the roads with their little babies. When we were almost to the lodge, we saw a black bear beside the road around Mount Washburn. Mom said that there are lots of bear caves in that area and sometimes you can see the momma bears with their cubs. We pulled into the lodge and secured the key to Cabin #71 on Running Horse Trail.

We decided to eat dinner at the restaurant in Roosevelt Lodge and save the cooking for the next two nights. The menu was pricey with few selections. Mia picked the macaroni & cheese of course for $5.25 and it looked exactly like it came out of the box. I opted for the taco salad with black bean chili on top for $8.95. Mom ordered the bean and cheese enchiladas for $10.25 and they were so spicy that it made her nose and eyes water. Erika got the cheese pizza for $6.25 and she scraped all the toppings off and ate the crust. AshLee ordered the Elk burger with cheddar and mushrooms for $14. It was okay but nothing worth repeating.

The cabin has one full bed in it, a woodstove with a bullet of sawdust rounds, small table with chair, lamp, towels, and soap basket. We're off to bed so we can spend tomorrow exploring the park and her wildlife. This is Mia's first trip into Yellowstone National Park.

Their Annual Camping Trip

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 06:26:00 +0000

Every year my mother takes my older children on a one to two week camping trip in a National Park. I normally send off the kids with a backpack and kiss and settle down to enjoy the quiet bliss of an empty house. This year, I'm unemployed and I can't remember the last time that I did anything with my mother and daughters together that didn't consist of a family dinner or holiday at one of our homes. Voluntarily going camping with all of them for 5 days, never! I love to camp, I love my children, I love my mother, I just wasn't sure if I was going to love all of them together for that long. I'm an adventurous girl though and I'm unemployed so I really have no excuse not to join my family...

Day 1 was fairly easy. Mom worked the graveyard shift at the hospital last night so we'd load up and head out when she woke up around noon. She had a hard time sleeping and I ended up being the one running around trying to get my errands finished so we could leave at a decent hour. The five of us loaded into my mom's Ford Focus. I had managed to pack clothing for the three of us into one carry-on size suitcase. Besides that, we had three pairs of cowboy boots, one cowboy hat, my camera and DVD camcorder, and the girls toys in little backpacks. AshLee sat in the backseat with the girls with two plastic boxes sitting on her lap. One contained 9 live crickets to feed to the 11 live tarantulas in the other box, eeks! The first leg of our journey was pretty easy, drive from Bend, OR to Boise, ID and sleep at the Best Western. The only thought running through my head was that I would get to eat at my all-time favorite restaurant, the Cracker Barrel! Due to the time change, we ended up pulling into town for dinner around 8:30pm. I ordered my usual; raspberry lemonade, 10 oz rib eye steak medium rare with sides of macaroni & cheese, hashbrown casserole, and fried apples. By the time we left for the hotel, the sky was full of lightning, the trees were almost blowing in half with the wind, and the rain was coming down hard and heavy. And there's a poor girl on the back of a motorcycle in a tshirt and shorty shorts, it's gotta suck to be her!

So we're settled in for the night. The girls want to hit the swimming pool in the morning since we checked in too late to play tonight, and then it's about another 6 hours to the lodge in Yellowstone tomorrow. I hear there is no cell phone coverage or internet services so I'll update next week. Here's to a week of female family bonding!

Post It Note Tuesdays: Headed to Cali

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:41:00 +0000

Spanish Fridays: Recuerdo de Novenario

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 05:36:00 +0000

Pienso que voy a seguir aprendiendo todo la vida. Yo sabia que hay un tiempo de nueve dias despues de la muerte de alguien pero no entendi la razon. Yo recuerdo cuando la abuela de mi ex-marido se murio, hicimos unas capias con listones negros y los jugadores de su equipo los puso en su playera en memoria. Jose me pidio ayuda para comprar unos recuerdos de novenario y por supuesto, yo tenia que hacerlos en lugar de gastar dinero. Buscabamos ideas por el internet y encontremos unos cuadros con un imagen de Jesus o otro santo y foto de la persona con un oracion o algo similar. Yo pase horas y horas usando un programa en la computadora donde yo podria poner un imagen por encima del otro, ay caramba! Durante mi tiempo, me puse a estudiar el significado del noveranio y que era. Novenario es del numero nueve para los nueve dias que estan rezando por el alma del fallicido, pueden ser misas o rosarios. Unos dicen que hacen mas por los que viven para que ellos sienten que estan haciendo todo lo que pueden para que su querido obtenga entrada al cielo. Abuelo Nicolas era catolico pero no se fue seguido a misa. Mi esposo tampoco se va a la misa pero es muy religioso y observa en su manera aqui en la casa. Tiene sus imagenes de Jesus y sus santos y les da un beso y respeto diario. Por fin termine con mi imagen y pide una copia de Costco para hacer una prueba. Fui a Joann's para comprar otro cartucho para mi máquina para hacer imanes de nevera para los huéspedes este martes. Lo quedo muy bonito yo pienso! Jose quiere mandar unos a Mexico tambien por la familia alla. Me siento muy orgullosa que pordia ayudar a mi esposo en este momento.

Post-It Note Tuesday: Packing for Mexico

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 03:24:00 +0000

I was swamped today trying to run around and do a million errands in a short period of time. Tia Lorena bought her last minute ticket yesterday afternoon to fly to Mexico on Alaska Airlines. Since she was only planning on taking a carry-on suitcase, she offered to haul down a suitcase for us if we wanted to send anything, yippie! Thankfully we had done a bunch of shopping at Old Navy during their Memorial Day sale and stocked up on tennis shoes at Nike as well. I spent the day inputting all the codes into Quickbooks and packing the suitcase up to the 50 pound limit. Alaska Airlines even allows for the first two suitcases to fly for free on flights to and from Mexico City and Guadalajara. I might have found my new airlines if their ticket prices are at all competitive. She got hers roundtrip from Redmond for only $428 so that's really good. I managed to accomplish everything on the list. As soon as Jose got home from work at 2pm, we headed off to Redmond to pick up Lorena and take her to the airport. She got off without a hitch and I could relax!

Mourning from Afar

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 04:38:00 +0000

I was slow getting to bed last night, in fact it was after midnight, before I headed off to bed. I had dozed off while lying the girls down to sleep. I had to come in and check up on my Facebook before I could go to sleep and then I got sucked into playing my latest game Monopoly Millionaires. I thought I could hear voices coming from my bedroom and Jose had fallen asleep a couple hours ago so I was slightly confused. When I went into the room, Jose was lying across the bed sobbing. Maria just called to let him know that his grandpa Nicolas had passed away. This is the call that he's been dreading for the last two weeks since Nicolas stopped eating and then developed a fever two days ago. We had hoped for better news since the fever broke yesterday and he had actually asked for something to eat and drink.

This is the man that fathered 16 children and countless grandchildren, acted like a father to my husband for the 15 years that he lived there with them, and commanded a love and loyalty among his family like no other. I first met Nicolas and Marciana in March of 2008 when I made my first trip to Zirandaro, Guerrero. I don't know his specific age but he was in his 90's and he lived a very full life. Over the last few years, I have seen him slowly start to decline and keep thinner and thinner. Nicolas hated the doctors and anything related to medicine. He had lost most of his hearing but didn't trust using anything like a hearing aid. On each visit, it was always very easy to find him. His chair sits at the head of his wife's bed, just beside the water cooler with his bed just across the walkway. He had a straight line to the toilet that was finally built inside the home last year. His sombrero was always within arm's reach if not perched upon his head. At night, he would place it over his head to keep out the light and thus he slept all night long, barely moving at all. Sometimes I would fear that he'd leave us and we wouldn't know it until morning. Yet that wasn't how he went thankfully.

My husband took his death particularly hard as he was trapped between his head and his heart. There is nothing that my husband wanted more than to get on a plane and fly down there to be with his family and say goodbye to his beloved grandfather. His head told him that he shouldn't go. If he left, who would be here to pay the bills and send money down to the family? If he went, how would he be able to continue sending child support to his boys? If he went, what would happen to our family here? Would we lose the home? And in the end, his head won out over his heart. He is a man that takes his responsibilities very seriously, even when I tell him that everything will take care of itself, don't worry, I'm here to support any choice you make.

Jose drove over to his uncle's house to be with him and his cousins while they discussed what could be done from afar to help. I was so worried about him driving even the short distance to his house at 2:30am in his state of mind knowing that cops are looking for drunk drivers at that hour and worried that something worse might come of it. Thankfully he made it there and back safely and then he was off to work at 5am. I was able to sleep from 5-8am and overslept my alarm so I had to drive Erika so she'd make it to school on time. My task of the day was finding any digital photos I had taken of Nicolas and getting enlargements printed up at Costco and framing them all. Jose had a short day at work and was home in time to start running errands with me. Everyone gathered at his uncle's house to continue planning. One uncle left early this morning with barely a word to anyone. Another aunt bought her ticket leaving tomorrow. The ones who can't go are forlorn and heartsick. When my grandmother passed away last October while I was in Mexico, I at least knew that I could come home if I wanted to, my husband suffers from this basic lack of freedom of movement.

Faviola organized a family gathering in the evening and they set up the ofrenda for Nicolas with his pictures, candles, and flowers to honor him. Meanwhile in Zirandaro, the family has purchased a coffin, the doctor has come over and prepared the body, and Nicolas is set up in his favorite part of the house so the family can gather around him during the final hours. I'm not religious so I'm feeling out of sorts but it's important to be with Jose during this time and support him. The house is packed with people that I don't know, the cousins have come with the exception of the Madras family only an hour away. Some have switched from Catholicism to Jehovahs Witnesses so they choose to not participate in the prayer. We still have some chocolate rounds from my last trip to Zirandaro so Faviola makes up a huge pot of hot chocolate/atole to serve along with bags of pan dulce.

In Zirandaro, a grandson has set up the laptop and web camera so we are able to join the two locations together during the service there. The floor in front of the casket is covered in flowers and Nicolas is laid out in all white. They uncover his face so the family here can say their goodbyes. Everyone crowds around the laptop watching with tears streaming down their faces and quiet sobs racking their bodies young and old alike. Every once in awhile, someone throws themselves onto the casket and you see family gather around to console and pull them away. Today technology is a beautiful thing in Jose's eyes too.

Que descanza en paz Nicolas Medrano, le queremos muchisimo!

Weigh In Wednesday: Body Fat

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 06:34:00 +0000

This was definitely an off week for me and it didn't feel right, even before the sadness of Monday. Friday night we went to a friend's going away party and I ate too much. I weighed in this morning at 156.6 so I'm up almost 2 pounds from last week. Good thing that I didn't have a chance to get down to Victoria's Secret and buy those two new bras, otherwise I'd have to return them this week. Which makes me wonder, since weight fluctuates, what should I do with my rewards if I go back up? Hide them away in the closet and not use them until I'm back down again?

My skin calipers and body tape measure came in the mail from Amazon.com this week so it was time to crunch some numbers and face the cold reality. Unfortunately, I lived with the fear of my body fat percentage for 10 years in the Army and I was faced with all kinds of humiliation. If you don't meet the height/weight standards, you have to be measured for your body fat percentage. One year I flew to training to Colorado and was actually sent home because I was less than 1% over the school standards. I think I am a pear shaped woman with most of my weight sitting in my waist, hips, and thighs. Thankfully, there are some great websites that will help teach you how to take skinfold measurements with the calipers and you can input your measurements to find out your body fat percentage. I know that I'm going to be turning some of this weight into muscle so these measurements are going to be a better guide than my bathroom scale.

Chest: 24mm
Midaxillary: 24mm
Subprailiac: 22mm
Abdominal: 40mm
Thigh: 30mm
Tricep: 26mm
Subscapular: 24mm

Plug those numbers into the handy dandy online calculator and I'm a whopping 33.76% body fat, not pretty at all. A healthy woman should fall between 22-27% so I've got a long way to go. While I would love to focus on building muscle, I really need to work on dropping the fat so that I am healthy enough to build muscle instead of eating away at it due to improper nutrition. My darling Jose on the other hand is 15% body fat...

Wednesday 6/1: Chest and Back X and 4 miles on the treadmill in 47:25
Thursday 6/2: Walking on Erika's Field Trip 4.1 miles outside
Friday 6/3: Hiking Pilot Butte 2 miles (pigged out at bbq)
Saturday 6/4: Walk/Run/Sprint 6 miles on the treadmill in 1 hour 29 minutes
Sunday 6/5: Walked 2.9 miles around the neighborhood in 55 minutes
Monday 6/6: Absolutely nothing
Tuesday 6/7: Walked 4.2 miles on the treadmill in 63 minutes
Total: 23.2 miles (short 3 miles and only did 1 P90X video)

Weigh In Wednesday: A Marathon is 26.2 Miles

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 17:01:00 +0000

Each week I am trying to set a different goal for myself so that I don't get bored and fall off the wagon again. This last week I set the goal to walk/jog/run/sprint a total of 26.2 miles, the distance of a marathon.

Wednesday 5/25: 3 miles on the treadmill
Thursday 5/26: 3 miles on the treadmill, 1000m on rowing machine
Friday 5/27: 3.2 miles on treadmill in 36:21
Saturday 5/28: 3 miles on treadmill
Sunday 5/29: 5 miles in 59:58 and then .25 cool down on treadmill
Monday 5/30: 6 miles on the treadmill, .5 mile walking to Walmart and back
Tuesday 5/31: 2.25 miles on the treadmill, MISSION COMPLETE!

I know that my body is changing little by little. I'm able to do 10 chin-ups at the gym and I only need 78# of assistance whereas I started out needing 90 or more in the beginning. I can hold the plank position for one full minute but it is a killer! I'm loving all my new athletic gear. I got this cute running skirt at Ross Dress 4 Less yesterday for only $7.99 and I got the top at Old Navy this weekend for only $2.73. My closet is now 1/3 dresses and skirts, 1/3 athletic wear, and 1/3 regular street clothes.

I have completely changed up my diet due to a couple challenges that I'm participating in over at FatSecret. The first one is called Beachbody by Summer: 4 Week Challenge and it just started. It is going to be done in conjunction with Jose and I doing the P90X program. One of the weekly goals is to eat foods from the top two tiers of Michi's Ladder and that is very tough! Something must be working because I went from 158.6 lbs last week to 154.8 lbs this morning, over 3 pounds down in one week!
I did order some new products this week to help me track my weight loss and muscle gain with a little more accuracy. The first is a skin caliper so I can take measurements on 6 different areas of the body to determine my body fat percentage and which areas of my body are losing more or less than others. Skin calipers are more accurate than the tape test. I also ordered a fitness tape measure so I can continue to check my measurements overall over the next 90 days.
The nice thing about the tape measure is that it's easy for one person to use alone and it applies the same amount of tension each time so I don't have to worry about doing it too tight or too loose from week to week. I will post my measurements on a monthly basis. Next week I will go more into using skin calipers and our measurements.

Post-It Note Tuesday: Keeping Busy

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Tue, 31 May 2011 18:24:00 +0000

Delta Airlines and My Smashed Baggage

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Sun, 29 May 2011 04:21:00 +0000

Before I even started packing my bags for the return trip, I went shopping and purchased two large blankets and thick towels to wrap everything in. I had plenty of room in my suitcases since the majority of my purchases were heavy items like marble and pottery and tequila. I'm not a novice flyer and I've never had anything broken in my luggage except for a side strap. Until now that is...

My first mistake was not returning to the airport Sunday night and trying to find someone to witness the damages and issue me a file number. If I had only known then what I know now. According to Delta's website for damaged baggage, I had 7 days to file a claim since it was an international flight. Since I had been traveling for 14 hours by the time I landed at the Portland airport, I had neither the time nor the energy to seek out a Delta representative considering that I still had a 3 hour drive ahead of me to reach my home. I think it's a good thing that I waited until I got home because I found two more broken items in my suitcase when I unpacked it. A smaller marble horse also had a broken leg and a quartz tray had two corners on it smashed too. The tray I threw into the garage, the legs I superglued back onto the horses and gave them to Erika, and the tequila bottle I cried over. Why did it have to be the most expensive bottle of tequila that got smashed? Is there some Murphy's law about this that I missed somehow? I paid 327 pesos for that 1 liter bottle of Don Julio. The others I paid less than 130 pesos each. A more positive person would be thankful that I didn't get the other bottles taken away from me. I'm saying hell yeah I'm positive but why couldn't it have been the cheaper one?!

So back to filing a claim with Delta's customer service department. The first time I called, there was a 36-44 minute hold time but I could punch in my phone number and they'd call me back without losing my place in line. I got the call back and was told that I would need to go to the nearest airport and show the damages to a Delta representative. I asked what hours would a representative be available there? 5am to 9pm ma'am. Ok, I can handle that, thank you. Drive 20+ miles to the airport, no Delta representative in sight. A couple more days pass and I return to the airport on Sunday, my last day to file a claim. This time we showed up earlier than last time and still nobody in sight. After waiting awhile and asking several people if any Delta people were around, a United agent finally told me that Delta leaves early afternoon because their last flight is at 1:30pm. So I call Delta customer care while I'm standing at the Delta counter and ask what are my options now. After she tells me that somebody is supposed to be there (not!), she said that I can go home and file my claim online.

And then the final part of my fun commenced. On Delta's website for damaged baggage, you have to put in your first and last name and the file reference number that you are issued by a Delta representative. So I called Delta customer service again and they transfer me to the baggage department. The automated system says that there is a long hold time and I can input my phone number for a call back when it's my turn in line. Ok, in go my digits and I hang up and wait. I get a call back about 20 minutes later and the line is silent while I say hello over and over. After a minute, call ended. So I call Delta customer service again and the agent told me that they aren't allowed to transfer me to the baggage department so she gave me the number to call directly. While I was talking to her, I got another call back from Delta that remained silent until the call ended after 92 seconds. I even put the cell phone up to my home phone so she could hear the silent static on the line. She said that she couldn't do anything for me and that was that. So this time I called their baggage department and sat on hold for the 20 minutes waiting for a representative to come on the line.

The final Delta representative that I talked to on the phone definitely qualifies for worst customer service of the year award. She was full of empty empathy for my situation, told me several times that nobody had the ability to document my case and give me a one day extension on my claim, and since I used the word "shit" once she was going to need to hang up on me for my abusive language. When I asked to speak with a supervisor to discuss my options, she refused to look for a supervisor and told me that Delta was not flexible on their policies and that they didn't care about the situation or what steps I had done to complete my claim within their time limits. They have definitely lost my business as well as that of my family and it's a shame, they had great people working in the airports on my flight from Portland to Salt Lake City to Mexico City and back as well as their flight crew too. It looks like I'll be sticking with Continental for my future flights. I'm left at the end of the week with 552 pesos of damaged goods and a very sour taste in my mouth.

Weigh In Wednesday: Before P90X

noreply@blogger.com (ArmyMustang) — Wed, 25 May 2011 20:47:00 +0000

Front Profile Shot

Jose and I have decided to do the P90X Program together, me because I'm tired of carrying around this tire, him because he wants to get ripped. Even when I lost so weight last summer and got down to 148#, I still had the mommy gut and I just got discouraged. We can commit to anything for 90 days and see what happens. One of the first things that you have to do is take six different poses of your Before along with your measurements.

Front Twisted Shot

My Before Measurements:
Weight 158.6#
Waist 39" at the belly button (Mia is 22.5")
Hips 41.5" at the widest part
Bicep 12" relaxed (Mia is 6.75")
Neck 13.5" (Mia is 9.5")
Forearm 9.5" (Mia is 6.5")
Thigh 24.5" at the fattest part
Chest 33" right below my sports bra

Rear Muscle Shot

My thighs touch from my knees to my groin area, I have the very unattractive muffin top, and love handles developing on my back. All in all, it's time for a change and I have plenty of time on my hands. I am going to follow the P90X program in addition to my regular exercise. I'm going to aim for completing a marathon a week, so basically 26.2 miles every 7 days. If I break it down, it's just over 4 miles a day. I just need to keep this body moving. Challenges seem to work the best for me. If I can continue walking Pilot Butte at least 3 times a week, walk 26.2 miles a week, follow the P90X workout videos, I should burn far more calories than I am taking in.

Rear Profile Shot

And this has got to be the worst looking before shot ever, the rear end. I feel like I need to slap a wide load sticker on there. This is not my normal workout gear, I generally wear some type of workout shirt over my sports bra. I think that I'm going to wear this when I'm working out in the house and my usual attire when I am out walking/running or in the gym. I called the Kids Korner and made a reservation for 6-7pm tonight so I can get moving.

Side Profile Shot

I also have a fitness test that I'm supposed to take now as well as every 30 days until I finish the program so I can see what areas I am improving in. I printed out the 5 pages of workout sheets from BeachBody so both of us can keep track of our progress.

Front Muscle Shot

I get to take pics of Jose's before body when he gets home from work too. He doesn't have any spare tire but he does have a little tiny bit in the area of the love handles and he wants a ripped abdomen. When he goes home to Mexico, he wants to be in fabulous shape and feel like he's returning home confident and in the best shape of his life. I think it's so he can pig out on all that home cooking and not worry about gaining as much weight. I put back on a pound while I was in Mexico this week and I wasn't even pigging out on bad food, just add one huge torta that was so delicious it was worth it!

So stay tuned as I'll be posting updated pictures at the day 30, day 60, and day 90 marks!