Marzo 2017

We had a really fun month. Did not go out of town or anywhere really special, but enjoyed the wonderful weather we have been having. Love Arizona this time of the year...until summer comes and then I want to rip my face off. Anywho...we had a good month. Even though the Wild Cats did not make it to the final four. Mark has been working late hours still, so that stinks. Hopefully we will see more of him in May.

Our fun walks to McDonalds for Ice Cream, Lily's favorite activity. Though I don't think it's for the walk ;)

 Mark is teaching Lily how to play basketball. And Jacob tries to steal it. He is getting so big!

Grammy came to visit and we took the kids to Encanto Park. Jacob got to ride on his first rides alone! Looking forward to the Pima county fair next month.

 These kiddos are enjoying their early easter present. They love to play in the sand and I love to see them playing together.

 We got some warm weather this month in the 90's, so we headed to the splash pad. Last year Jacob was not walking when we came. Crazy to think how much he has grown.

 Took lily to Dave and busters so she could be a real live Ghost Buster...dream come true! She even made us badges to wear.

 Lily shenanigans. She had Ninja camp this month. Caught her readying a magazine while going potty (had to document) and she asked to buy this cross at the store so she could decorate it like Lucifer would...what?! And she pointed out that the scratch on her leg looks like ASU's devils fork...Mark is worried too much ASU exposure living in Phoenix.

 Jacob Shenanigans. He broke my glasses (still heart broken) and I found him in the kitchen, very disappointed with himself that he spilled all the matches. Pretty much distructo...but I'll still love him.

Crossfit Open 2017

My first year doing the Crossfit Open was not as terrible as I'd always thought it would be. Though it was very eye opening as to just how far behind I really am. Here are the exercises, and my performance: The Open starts with 17.1 (for 2017, week/workout #1) and ends with 17.5.

The first workout I was really nervous cause I'm SO slow at Burpees, and my box jumps are not fast either. So I opted for Scaled which means box step overs and lighter dumbbell. I was one burpee/box jump short of finishing before the time cap, which bothered me for a good week, but I'm over it. Looking back now, I should have RX'd the entire workout, not scaled. I could have done everything it required and gotten more points in the long run. 

My favorite workout by far was 17.4. I love deadlifts and rowing, however the wall balls slowed me down since I can't get below parallel without a lot of effort. I did the workout twice cause I was set on finishing the row. The first day I was slow on the wall ball cause I wanted to get low. However, according to others who were watching, I was getting too low and could have gone faster. So, I took there advice and did it a second time. by then I was sore from the first workout (doing it twice is never a good idea.) I managed the 55 deadlifts in 4 minutes, wall balls in 6 minutes (still slow) but beat my first time by 1 minute. HOWEVER my legs were burning so much more then the first time from being slow, that the row was so painful. I stopped twice to take a breath on the rower...I NEVER STOP ON THE ROW! I was pretty mad at myself, but I honestly felt like I was having a baby again. My friends and coaches yelling at me to keep pulling, telling me not to stop, that I can finish the three minutes, while I'm thinking (and saying out loud) that I just cannot do it, that I was in too much pain and my legs were going to fall off. It was awful. BUT I still managed to beat my reps from the first round by 10, so it was worth it. Still bothered I stopped twice though...shameful.

The worst workout had to be 17.2. I hit an end point with each workout because I can't do toe to bar for the RX and I can't do chin ups to end the scaled workout. So I was pretty much screwed. I got through the lunges pretty quickly (3-4 minutesish) and had a lot of time to attempt ONE measly pull-up...nope. Then I tried it RX'd and again, had a good 8 minutes to get a toe to bar...nope. I will not, cannot let that happen again next year.

17.3 also sucked cause I'm terrible at squat snatches. Was no rep'd 5 times cause was not going below parallel. I liked 17.5, which I did scaled just to get a workout (13:47) but got judged RX. I cannot do double unders yet, so I whipped out my 9 thrusters and gained some points.

So what this is telling me, it that I'm pretty average...but not last! I'm cool with that.

Lessons learned:

1. Go for RX, everytime during the open. You will get more points then scaling, and it'll stop you from being a wuss.
2. Don't get mad about what you can't do, just write it down as something to work on.
3. Do it right the first time, don't try to perform the workout twice
4. It's okay to pick someone to compete with...motivation
5. David Castro is a prick.

Goals for next year:

1. Don't be either of the above. I need to work hard on my weaknesses the rest of this year. The Gymnastics part of crossfit is my weakness. Improve.
2. Double unders...need to work on them
3. Do the whole Open RX'd without modifications
4. Shed body fat, it'll help me with #1. Big girl gymnastics is possible, but ain't easy. Get to 24% BF, currently at 28%.
5. be ranked below 1000.

I also counted macros during the 5 weeks. Dropped 5lbs, and 2% body fat. My deadlift went up to 275lbs and my snatch is now 90 from 80. So there is progression. Going to continue with the macros, cause I'm seeing results.

Really happy that I did this. Brought me closer to the folks at my box and helped me see all that I need to work on and just how close I am. Excited for next years Open!

The Month of February

Not much to mention about this month, Lily's birthday was the big event. We don't see much of Mark these days, aside from the weekend. He is working from 8am to 10pm almost every night. This is turning out to be a true busy season for him. We knew it would be this way though, I don't like it, but we can handle it till April. I've been focusing on keeping busy with the kids and working on my Crossfit goals. I feel myself improving everyday and getting closer to my Crossfit community which is always motivating. I've just started counting Macros this week, which is turning out to be really difficult to meet my daily numbers. My split on training days is: P165, C237, F43 cals1994 and rest days: P201, C110, F55g cals1733. How does one get 201 grams of protein in one day while minimizing carb and fat intake?! usually I miss my numbers by a gram or so, but I feel like I'm eating all day. Never thought that'd be a problem, but it is annoying! lol. That being said, I'm already down 4lbs in a week, probably inflammation, but I'll take it. Diet, it's a science! Lily and Jacob are doing wonderful. We all came down with an icky cold last weekend, had to miss our weekly activities. Kids had fevers but got over all the yuck after three days, I'm still struggling with the cough, but otherwise good. Valentines day we spent it at Chic-fil-a with the kids since Mark got home at 8pm. We had a good day exchanging valentines, mark is a good daddy and got the kids valentines, Lily got Barbie clothes and Jacob chose a Barbie. Yup, he wanted a Barbie and I did not stop him. His toy, his choice. Then Mark and I got to celebrate together on Saturday after Lily's birthday party. We went to Portillos (Italian beefs...fancy) and then Dave and Busters to play games. We make quite the team on these games. Especially Down the Clown which we get the Jackpot every time we play. We have such a fun time together, love my valentine. We are all doing good here, weather is perfect so we will need to do more outdoor stuff, but looking forward to seeing Mark more then 2 hours a day.

We were invited by Lily's little friend Liam to go to the Arizona Science Museum. LOVED IT! So much to see and Lily and I are science geeks. We had a blast. I did not get a pic of Liam and Lily together, but we had a great time with our friends.

Jacob and his Barbie. Love that the clothes don't come off, he looks less creepy carrying it around. lol

Lilys had a fun taste in outfits lately, channeling her inner ballerina.

 

Is this not the face of a Stinker? His evil villain name is Stinker Binker according to Lily.

My baby boy got his first haircut (at a legit place, not mom's bowl cuts) and he did great and looking less shabby!

Wheel chair racing, Lily dominated. Unfair advantage since Jacobs arms don't reach.

I also signed up for the Crossfit Open which began the 23rd. Each week, there is one workout that we perform and we are placed on a global leaderboard to see how well we mark in comparison to other crossfitters. I was really anxious for the first workout because I'd been sick all week, but I could not get a zero for a score! Workout 17.1 was dumbbell snatches, box jump overs and burpees. Ladder fashion 10(DB Snatch)-15(burpee, box jump over)-20-15-30-15-40-15-50-15, 75 burpee box jumps + 150 DB snatches= 225 reps. weight scaled was 20lbs and step ups instead of box jumps. Oh, and there was a time cap of 20 minutes.
So, the workout. I thought I'd be lucky if I got to round 3 due to my cold. but, I just decided to go and never take a rest. Go slow on burpees/box step ups but don't stop moving. I thought I had 45 seconds left in the workout, had 2 more reps to go. I was about to step down to do my last burpee when time was called, looks like I had 15 seconds left! I was short one stinking rep from the time cap! I was bothered but still pretty proud that I got that far despite my expectations. I could have redone the workout, but i'll take the one missed rep and try to do better on 17.2.

took some pics of where I'm at now. want to take another end of March, once the Open is over to show any progress I've made with counting Macros and working on weak points with lifting. And goofing around with my babes is always fun.

Happy 5th Birthday Lily Lu!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yPJq8D5MolU

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LMwTWKs182Q
February 19th 2017 my baby, my first, my heart turned 5 years old. I cannot believe 5 years has already gone by! They were not kidding when they said time flies.
Lily is such a wonderful girl. I rave about her all the time cause to me, she is perfection. She is such a cleaver, imaginative and creative child, I am always entertained while in her presence. When I say that she is my heart, it is because I could not live without her. She is my sunshine. I love her so much it literally makes me ache inside. Every time I think about her starting Kindergarten this year, I cry...so I try not to think about it. What am I going to do without my buddy all day! I guess there is Jacob (jk).
Lily wanted a Birthday party this year. Not a family only birthday party like I throw every year, but a real legit birthday party. I hate birthday parties. BUT, I put my feelings aside to throw my baby girl a party. She has been into Alice in Wonderland lately and is fascinated by the Mad Hatter. So, for her theme, she wanted to have a 'Mad Hatter Tea Party'. We were going to have it at the park, play games, make hats and have a piñata. I had purchased some things on Amazon to decorate the hats, party favors and décor for the park. She invited about 9 friends, 7 or which RSVP'd including a few guests. So we were going to have about 12 people all together. The week of the party, it was forecasted to rain hard. I thought hard about our options, and decided to move the party to Peter Piper Pizza. And it is a good thing I did, cause it rained a lot on Saturday, and the kids had a blast. Nice part was we did not have to worry about entertaining anyone. We got enough tokens and pizza for all kids, guests and parents and we even have tokens left over. Lily had a great time with all of her little friends, so glad everything turned out so great and we even got to decorate the hats! Friends that attended: Stetson Jobe, William Elsworth, Liam Jacobs, Bobby, Giana, Allen Mattison, Dallyn Rigby, and some siblings of friends. It was fun! And as you can tell, Lily is lacking friends of the female kind...like her mama ;)
And now, for a ridiculous amount of photos.

I should have gotten pictures of what was under the hats. We made mustaches and eyeglasses for them to wear with their hats. Also had cute tea cups with straws for party favor filled with toys and candy. Point was to make it a Mad Hatter Tea party. Was hard to go all out at peter piper. Lol

Her crazy cupcakes. Marshmallow frosting, very sticky!

Sweet William showed Lily the ropes. Pretty much just let these two disappear playing games together for two hours.

My picture taking was bad. took them as I remembered to.

Poor little guy was running a fever. But didn't stop him from having fun. All three of us were sick the following week. Mark escaped the plague.

A note from William. So cute!

Sunday was the actual birthday. We surprised lily by decorating her room. They sang to her in primary and we celebrated with Cake and presents at night. She had a great birthday weekend.

I am not tech savy, and cannot figure out how to flip these...so I won't.

Sorry, I just think he's cute.

We did not go all out with 5 yr pictures like we do each year, kept it simple.

The theme Mad Hatter, plus the ribbon she wore for her 1yr photos. Awe, my baby!