The Joys of Parenting...Grown Kids...

My lovely daughter has no awareness of time.  Since she is up early to take Brent to work, she believes I should be up too.  Yesterday she called me at 5:50 am and this morning at 6:50 am...My wake up time...7:30 am!  I can barely talk coherently at that time in the morning.  She is having issues with her truck and she doesn't have enough income to fix it.  Since she decided to move an hour away, running to take care of things for her isn't that easy.  Troy is on days this week and won't be home until after 6pm so the option of us going and towing her truck to the shop during business hours just isn't able to happen...that's when grandpa steps in.  We decided that sending a tow truck was the best option in this case.  Dad is stuck waiting on the veterinarian to get here to care for a couple of cows and can't leave to tow her.  I'm not looking forward to the possibility of having to drive that far tonight to pick Caitlyn up and take her to pick up her truck and am hoping a neighbor near her would be willing to drive her the 15 or so miles to the shop.  Worst case scenario...her truck doesn't get fixed today and I still have to drive an hour there to pick her up and take her to work in the morning...and take her back after work...fun fun.  I'm trying to convince her that she could just ride her bike. :-)

Fighting the Tears...

This morning, instead of going for my normal walk, I decided I would try going for a bike ride alone.  I found that I just don't get quite as much "therapy" out of it as I do with walking.  It's harder to "hear" my world at 9 MPH. I hadn't made it but a couple of miles when a van passed.  The lady driving was covering her mouth laughing at me.  I was so ticked off the rest of the ride.  I ran multiple Facebook status updates through my head trying to figure out the perfect one to post about the situation...like that was going to help anything.  I ended up not posting any of them.  I may not be a size 4...or 8...or even a size 10, but I do have just as much right to be on a bike in public as anyone else.  I went from being fighting mad to fighting back the tears on the road back home.  I have spent my entire life fighting my weight and fighting back the tears caused by insults from people who just don't care.  I'm 41 years old...honestly, no one other opinion of me really matters...I just can't seem to really believe that though.  I've spent so many years trying to do my best to meet everyone's expectations of me and not nearly enough years trying to accept me for who I am.  I may never be a size 8, and I may not make it down to a size 10, but it doesn't give anyone the right to make me feel less worthy to live in this world.  I will continue to ride and I will continue to get healthier...one day I will be able to say I won this battle.  For today, however, I'll take my wins a little at a time.  This morning I was able to ride up this hill on my bike without stopping and walking...

It may not look like much from the picture, but believe me it's a challenge.  After 3 weeks of riding, last night was the first time that I was able to make it up it with a stop in the middle...things have no other way to go but up...one hill at a time!

Biking...

We have been riding bikes for about 3 weeks now.  I had informed Zack that when he came home from school for the 4th of July holiday he was going to have to go along with us.  Last night, Troy skipped out on us and Zack took his bike.  We found out real quick that Zack was going to need a bigger bike...a 26" just wasn't going to cut it for a kid that is 6'4".  This afternoon, after visiting several stores, we finally settled on a 29" bike from Walmart.  While I'm sure there are much better, more expensive brands available, we aren't doing this to train for some exhausting bike race...we just want to ride for exercise.  We've found something that we all do together almost every night...that's saying something when you have all teenagers!  

I caught Troy and Zack in my mirror when we stopped for a quick breather...

100 Missouri Miles...One Month Complete!

On June 2, I started the 100 Miles in Missouri challenge.  As of this morning, I have walked 78 miles and biked 42 miles for a total of 121 miles! Thats about a 4 mile a day average for the month!  I bought myself a hydration pack to wear on my bike and have found that it comes in pretty handy on long walks too. 

I've lost 7.4 lbs during this month.  I still have a long way to go, but I feel like I'm actually on a path to reach my goal.  Walking has become almost an addiction...I'm lost if I'm unable to fit it into a day.  Troy and our youngest, Kyle, has been coming along too...Troy for both walks and bike rides (when he's off work) and Kyle has been doing the bike rides.  It makes things a lot easier when the whole family joins in!  I heard from Zack at college...he's lost 20 lbs since he left home in May.  He'll be back home at the end of August for his internship...we'll be buying another bike!