Hills, Friends and A Toro

Tonight´s escapade  late evening jog was met by many hills! This normally would get me running the other way in search for an easier way, but a new friend and her sons wanted to come out with us tonight, so we tackled these hills!

Yes, I said "us". 

Typically, I jog with our dog, Toro ( which means "bull" in English), He pulls incessantly and is as stubborn as a donkey, but he keeps me company when I go jogging at night. Tonight, however, all three of my boys and their friends decided to take Toro out with me. Which means, we all were going to the park together. 

 " There goes my peaceful jog to think and listen to music!" I thought, but instead I joyfully  hurried the troop out the door to the great outdoors. It was, after all, getting late.

My new friend and I managed to do two big laps, (3Km) and some abdominal exercises, when out of nowhere our Toro comes running to give my new friend a kiss right on the nose!


"Hey, I don´t even know your name," she laughs out loud. 

Oh, thankfully she likes dogs. 

The boys are laughing, throwing each other around, swinging and zip lining as if it were a summer night! It was so hard to tell them it was time to go home. 

I love this park, where I used to take my little boys. It was as if I heard their laughter from a time past. 

What was only to be a quick 30 minute jog, turned out to be a fun, chaotic adventure! That´s what happens when the hills meet 6 boys and a Toro! 




Check out how you can also be strong in your fitness journey at my other blog www.faithfitnessandfun.blogspot.com
.........and
Check out our BE STRONG Ministry at www.bestrongmissions.blogspot.com

Joining every Monday with,

A New Family Member!

I wanted to surprise the boys for all their hard work these last couple of months.

They had earned a lot of smiles on their smile charts for all their jobs, and this Saturday, they were doing their jobs pretty much without me telling them. It pleased me so much! I just was bursting to my mom on the phone, watching them clean their hamster cage all by themselves, all three of them together.


We needed something special!

Something to show them that Mommy was so proud of them.

It was time for a new member of the family!

May I introduce you to our guinea pig Reeses Pieces - lovingly called Reese.

She is only 6wks old  and is babied and pampered all day long. I wonder how she will turn out?

Running The Race!!!

Yes, I know, it may seem a little different in the line of missions, but I am using it as a means to get to know more ladies in the community. I pray to use training for The Race for Women, every year to meet more and more ladies.

This year, I ran alone, got to know a few ladies, met my goal, got my prizes, and went to church. Next year however, I would love to have a group from our church sign up, and have a verse ironed on our shirts with the church´s name!

A little bit about The Race for Women. It´s a  5 kilometer (3.2 mile) race to promote breast cancer awareness and to raise money to help support research for the fight against it. There will be a total of 9 races throughout Spain this year. This has been the sixth year that the Race for Women has taken place. Gijón had a great turn out of about 3,000 women! It was amazing to participate in something so beneficial and widespread. It even was on the city news this afternoon. I actually saw my head pass by the camera.

Here I am before the start, bright eyed and bushy tailed! literally.

My cheering section! It was so great to see their faces when I crossed the finish line!

I am behind the that lady in front. hehe (my dh tried to get pictures, but someone always got in the way.)

Came in at 29 minutes flat! possibly in the top 200 or so!

Here´s some of the ladies that came in after me.

I finished! Praise the Lord!

The verses that have gotten me through many soccer practices, difficult situations and now my first race is,

Psalm 121: 1-2

"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth."

Let´s keep running the race that is set before us. I am remembering that the spiritual race is far more important.

Keeping our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith,

Summer Recipe Carnival ~ BLT Macaroni Salad

Come on, join in on this Summer Recipe Carnival with...

 

Domestic Fringe is hosting this fun way to share great summer recipes.  I am no cook, and have had to really learn how to whip things up in a hurry. That´s why I love this recipe from an old Taste of Home magazine. It´s quick, easy, and yummy. Especially easy if you have a food processor.

 Hope you enjoy it as much as we have.
Looking forward to seeing all ya´ll´s recipes.

Happy Mommy, Happy Home

They say "When Mama ain´t happy, ain´t nobody happy." Bad English ,but how many of you have experianced this? We as moms have a great responsibility. Don´t we?

Well, I am realizing more and more how my attitude and perspective affect my crew. Praying to be more possitive for them and to help them over come the complaining spirit that tends to destroy our good intentions. 

Last night after church, we got to go out for a lovely bike ride. Of course, as always, there was some drama. Our second son´s bike is too small for him and was having technical difficulties. I struggled keeping patient with the small interuptions that this bike posed for us, and having to stop more often than we wanted. We got them fixed, though, and had one of the best rides yet, biking for almost 2 hours together.

Here are some of our pictures.

The bike trails go by so many pasture lands and rivers. It´s like riding in a story book!

So Mommy was happy and we were all happy!

*** I am also  joining Nan on her Making Your Home Sing meme.***

She is hosting a summer cleaning frenzy. I plan to clean a room a week, so the house is clean for the new school year. I will start with the boys room this week.  Here is what I plan to do this week.

- organize toys ( throw junk, give away toys they have outgrown)

-clean closets (sort clothes and give away clothes they have outgrown)

-clean behind and under beds

X - clean and organize book shelves

X - scrub the ceiling where there seems to be growing some mold. uhhhggg

X -scrub the windows inside and out

Plus, I must record and average grades this week!

Ok it´s posted, Nan. Now I am accountable.

Let´s pray for each other. Is there an area in you home that needs a cleaning frenzy? Join us. We will encourage you and pray for you too. 

Staying happy, singing praises to Jesus,

Wanna Get in Shape and Stay There???

You can!

Studies prove that losing weight and working out in a group increase the success rate. I am living proof of that. Hosting two fitness challenges already, I have had the opportunity to stick with my fitness journey for over a year, and be encouraged tremendously by those who were involved. They became an incredible support team. If you are one of them, you know what I mean.

Also, we have the greatest Support ever in the Lord Jesus Christ, He gives us the strength to continue on when often times all we want to do is sit down and vegetate. 

What are you waiting for?

Starting May 12 - June 30 2010

Write me your email and I can get you started right away, sweating off any excess fat, or just keeping off what you have already gotten off.

Catching UP part 1

Have you ever seen the movie UP?

Some days, I feel like I need to just slow down and enjoy the journey. The elderly man in the movie UP thought he had to go on a long journey to South America. All his life, he and his wife tried to save for this big trip, but his wife had made an album of their life´s journey. She passed away and gave him that album. By the end of the movie, he realized that he and his wife had enjoyed an incredible journey together, even if they had never gotten to go to South America together.

I realized that I haven´t just sat back and enjoyed the journey lately, nor have I shared any of our journey.

So, here we go. Are you ready? Here is part one, anyway. I´ll start with our second son´s 10th birthday, April 9.  Andrew is so happy to be 10. It seems to be a milestone in his life already.

Every morning of their birthay, I have the table all decorated with their gifts and lately a slide presentation just for them. Andrew loved his Smile card presentation. Especially the music. He is our little musician!

Andrew´s birthday "day" was divided into many phases. This is the second phase. A game of pool with the family. He and his daddy won against Mommy, Isaiah and Michael. They were unstoppable!

Even with this "awesome" form (ehem), he still beat us!

The victory smile!

Phase Two - Greek Gyros on the beach!

(really cheap meal for a family of 5)

Mommy and birthday boy

Special card from Daddy.

Phase three- Special requested cake. Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheese Cake!

With 5 eggs, sour cream, cream cheese, PB, and chocolate, this cake weighed a good 5lbs! It must have lasted all week!

No Best Friend better.

Our beach view. the café let us use their terraza to have coffee and cake!

Special Requested gift.

Had to add this one. After haircuts - Phase four! only our family probably sees it as a treat to go to the barber on their birthday. 

We end Part one of our photo journey with Andrew´s dream car. It may just always be just that a dream, but it´s mainly just for the color anyway. He loves Yellow!

Stayed tuned for more Parts to this UP Journey!