gotta love kids

[Guest guest]

Okay, gang! Here's a story for ya. I was sitting here in sweaty south Texas tonight, wrapping up my evening. I had just put the kids to bed and plopped down on the couch for a breather. I flipped channels for a few minutes. Hubby's out of town, so I had NO ONE to fight with for possession of the remote...that just somehow takes all the fun out of tv viewing for me. So I was getting more bored by the minute and started looking around for something to do. From the cushiony goodness of my couch, I saw three things competing for my attention, and much worse...my energy. First, I saw the pile of dishes from my daughter's birthday party yesterday waiting to be washed. I don't know about you, but YUCK! Housework? Don't think so. I saw our two turtles, literally staring at me from across the room with hungry eyes...hoping to be fed. FEED THE TURTLES? When *I* can't even eat those leftover smores from my daughter's party??? Don't think so. If *I* can't eat, then neither can they!! I gazed back toward the pretty lights of the television, hoping to find out Direct TV had suddenly decided to provide ENTERTAINMENT. No such luck. But there beside the tv it sat...the cover to my new Sansone exercise DVD. I bought it while on vacation. It seemed like a really good idea at the time. Of course, I had been cramped in our van for 2 days driving from Albequerque to south Texas. Walking seemed like a faraway luxury then, and it seemed like we'd never make it home...so I'd never actually have to *do* the video. The "authorities" would find the DVD in my van and everyone would honor my vigorous health regimen, even if posthoumously. It was a brilliant plan! But somehow we DID make it home and there sat the DVD. Somehow tonight, it just wasn't what I had in mind for FUN. BUT, Melody's challenge to elevate our exercise was bouncing around in my brain. The names of my courageous teammates (and vicious competitors!!) ran through my head...what kinds of sacrifices had they made today that I should honor with some reciprocal efforts??? My thoughts wandered back to my excitement over my THREE TENTHS of a pound weight loss tonight, and I knew I wanted to do even better next week. SIGH! I struggled with my laziness and boredom and guilt for about five more minutes until I finally screamed (internally of course, so as not to disturb the kids), "OKAY, MELODY! I'LL DO IT!!" And I stomped over to the DVD player (and YES, I'm counting that stomping on my weekly tally of exercise!!) and started the video. I even chose the 2 mile walk over the 1 mile walk. Hey, Melody said to challenge ourselves, so I did!! Five minutes into it...I felt pretty good! Ten minutes into it...I was hangin' in there! Fifteen minutes into it...I was thinking "OH MY STARS...IS THE CEILING LEAKING OR ARE THOSE TINY BEADS OF WATER ON MY FOREHEAD SWEAT???!!!?!?!?!? Is that NORMAL???" Twenty minutes into it...I realized my husband's not around to administer CPR nor to dial 911 at the appropriate time...PANIC! Then what happened? BOTH my daughters popped out of bed and came into the living room, nearly fainting when they saw their usually couch-potato mom huffing and puffing ON PURPOSE. Well, of course they had to plop down on the couch to watch...AND LAUGH!! I was struggling for breath and in NO POSITION to squeak out any reprimands for being out of bed...I *sure* wasn't going to QUIT the video just to fuss at my bedtime bullies after I'd invested so much time and SWEAT!! So I just let them watch me and giggle as much as they wanted to. I figured, they've seen me stuff my face a million times...surely witnessing this ONE act of healthy activity would erase all the bad examples I've set for them. No harm in hoping, right? Well, so there I was, marching up a storm and reaching the agony point when my "baby" (5 years old) actually decided to say something encouraging to me. What a sweetheart she was! The little darlin' proudly yelled out, "GO, OLD LADY! YOU CAN DO IT!" Well, for the first time in several minutes I was able to take a deep breath...of course it was a GASP, followed by my incredulous reply..."OLD LADY???????????????????? ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!" That kid was LUCKY my muscles were burning too much to march over to her end of the couch, let me tell ya!! Now don't get me wrong, I will be PROUD to be an old lady someday...I'm just not there YET!But, the good news is that I made it through the 2 mile video in the allotted 30 minutes and now I feel GREAT!! And I told BOTH my kids they were going to do it WITH ME TOMORROW!!! Hee hee hee! I'll get the last laugh yet.Just had to share my exercise "experience" with you. You just gotta love these kids and their MOUTHS!! The worst part is, I *still* have to do the dishes AND feed those turtles. DRATS!!What kinds of things are you all doing to increase your exercise this week? I need some inspiring ideas!! I *LOVED* the crocodile jumping!!Karla