Zumba!

Tonight when the boys realized I was going to Zumba, they begged to be allowed to come! They've heard so much about it but have never seen it or me do it and they are so curious. I couldn't help but think of them as I was "Zumba-ing" tonight.

There are so many different people that go to my Zumba class and each one has something that makes them stand out. There is an older Indian man who has befriended me. He is an international folk dancer and oh, you should see his moves! He has feet that are quick and light. He moves to his own beat and it sends my boys and Ben into gales of laughter to watch me imitate him:)

There is Maria, a new Zumba fanatic. She joined in the last month and just fell in love with it! She is a round, shorter Hispanic lady that giggles like a schoolgirl throughout the class. I officially met her tonight and was amazed to find that she has 3 grandchildren of her own. She is very sweet and even Zumbas at home when she can't find a class to go to!

There is another lady, perhaps Puerto Rican, who comes occasionally, who moves her hips constantly. I have never before seen anyone able to shimmy and move with such grace and such freedom! My hips do not cooperate with me, much to my grief. This lady has some very salsa, Latin dancer type moves and it's fun to watch.

There are two middle aged ladies that come together each week. They can't do a ton of bending but they constantly crack each other up with their renditions of the moves. They are very fun.

But my favorite Zumba member is George. I have described him before. Skinny, tight biker shorts and tank top, florescent yellow shoes that hurt the eye and an intimidating enthusiasm for Zumba-ing! Wow. I often have to stuff down the laughter, not laughing at him in meanness, but because he is SUCH a character. He leaps about the room with such unbridled enthusiasm that people cannot dance too close to him for fear that he will knock them over! He leaps, he prances, he shakes, he sweats SO much by the end of class but you should see the smile on his face! He has such a good time. By far, the most memorable experience with him was when our Zumba instructor, Laima, darted over during a song to turn the music up and George was so caught up with following her moves that he went running after her!

It still makes me laugh every time I think about it!

I may not be very consistent with my exercising, even though I have fresh hope each week that it will be so, but I have truly enjoyed every moment of my Zumba class and hate to miss one. I recommend it to anyone and everyone if you want to do some exercising that is truly fun. There are people that come ranging from giggly teenagers to 70 something year old men!

I came home from class to find both my boys sprawled out on their beds in nothing but their undies, desperate to fall asleep but unable to because of the heat. The temperature was in the mid 80s today and as soon as it gets hot, our upstairs gets SO hot. It traps all the heat in and makes sleeping almost unbearable. Luckily, the boys get to have the ceiling fan now that we switched rooms. I turned that on and got Samuel settled on the floor under it and got Zakkai up to go to the bathroom. He is sometimes really out of it when I get him up. He looked at me and I thought he was awake because he was hot but as soon as I stood him up and tried to walk him out of the room, he grabbed onto the bunkbed and held on with all his might and said, "Nooo! Mommy, I need to fall asleep. I need to. I just want to fall asleep. Don't do this, Mommy!"

I could tell he wasn't quite with it, so I pried his fingers off and cajoled him into the bathroom. I wonder if he had just been falling asleep when I came in. Thankfully, both boys are out now and hopefully things will cool down tonight.

I'm off to sleep to refresh myself for another busy day tomorrow!

Zumba!!!

Guess where I went tonight???? Zumba!! My first time back since the beginning of February. We had to drop our Y membership for the summer and just picked it back up again at a reduced price. Apparently being poor pays off sometimes:) Ben's schedule has been to work every Tues night which is Zumba night but this week it changed and voila!

The instructor remembered me and made a point to welcome me. I recognized a few people in the class, including a very energetic, strange, sweaty man in tight biker shorts. Zumba attracts all kinds of people:)

Here's a glimpse of what Zumba looks like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm7DyRjtWRc. My class would be minus the crazy guy waving the towel around:) My class is a whole lots smaller and the instructor faces the mirrors (with back to us) so we can copy her movements. It's so fun with loud, upbeat music and you work up a good sweat!!

Tonight one of the songs we did was a song I just heard for the first time this past week, thanks to my sis:) It's called Gangham Style. (I'll spare you the real video and give you a clip from the Today's show.) Apparently it's all the rage and lots of people are copying it. It's a very, very strange, yet intriguing thing to watch and I admit it was a lot of fun to try the dance tonight!

Anyways, glad to be back exercising again! When I told the boys I was going to Zumba tonight, Zakkai said, "Can I go to Zumba, too??!!"

Well, the Y has a kid's class called "Zumbatonic!" It's his lucky day.....

The Tornado

What you are about to see is only a small glimpse of what the baby tornado is doing to my home on an hourly basis. This particular destruction took approximately 1 minute or less to occur. Prepare yourself.

I had a dr appointment this afternoon for my foot (more in a moment) and when I walked in my front door, I saw, scatter allllll over the living room floor, two kinds of big legos, Mr. Potato head and all his accessories, a play piggy bank and its coins, the shape sorter and its shapes, the picnic basket and its play food and some cars.

And when I looked questioningly around the room, all 3 male fingers pointed in the direction of Eliana.

Who will now be renamed the "Baby Tornado." Can I hire a cleaning lady???

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So I have been referred to see a podiatrist (appt next Tues) for a possible laceration of the tendon on my 4th toe. My dead toe, as I have come to think of it fondly. Or maybe not so fondly:)

Until then, I have to buddy tape my toe to the one next to it and put on some cream that is supposed to help with the burning that comes from the nerve damage. Boy, I really did a number! Why did I have to be born so klutzy???!

We'll see what happens.

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I found the boys some snow pants today on clearance because apparently you should wear snow pants during the cold winters! The kids aren't allowed to do a lot of things on the playground at school if they don't wear them and they will be having recess on all days it is above 10 degrees.

Samuel and Zakkai have never had any and they are thrilled to pieces! They wore them around the house this afternoon:) I bought bigger sizes so they can last 2-3 years for each of them.

As a matter of fact, they love them so much that they have decided I need a pair, too! haha.

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I'll leave you on a funny note. Tonight I attempted Zumba again, modified. There is this middle aged guy who has started attending the class. He stands out because he is, after all, the only male in the class. And it could also be his skin tight biker shorts and muscle shirt, too.

Or maybe the way he gets so into the moves, you get a little distracted feeling like you've suddenly entered a zumba/kickboxing/ballet class. Anyways, I admit a giggle slipped out tonight when Mr. Biker Shorts got carried away with his movements and what he was doing and when the teacher darted over to turn up the music in the middle of the song, he started running after her!

Oh, it makes me laugh now to think about it! At least he's having a good time and that's what it's all about.

Oh and exercising, too:)

Zumba and Apples. And Bananas.

Ok, even if you're friends with me on FB, bear with me for a minute, okay?

I haven't even showered yet after my invigorating bike ride and Zumba class at the Y, just so I could share with you tonight's experience. Aren't you lucky?

You see all sorts of people doing Zumba, which is really fun. It's usually mostly women; there is 1 guy who goes to my class who is an older guy in his 60s. He kind of dances to his own beat, does what he can but there is definitely no hip swiveling or shimmying of any kind:)

There are young girls with lots of energy and some who are cautious, there are middle-aged women, there is one lady who shakes her hips like I've never seen before; I'm afraid she'll pull a muscle one of these days! There are people who've done Zumba for a year and know every move by heart and others, like me, who are new at it and turn the wrong way or take several beats to figure out what in the world they are supposed to be doing with their feet!

But tonight. Tonight a new visitor to Zumba took the cake. I walked in, set my water bottle and keys down and noticed immediately that in the front row was this guy, with muscular calves, wearing too-short mesh shorts, a very tight white shirt that was just a size or two too small. As in, when he lifted his arms his beer belly was bared for all to see.

He swiveled his hips, jumped up and down, danced from side to side and was really surprisingly graceful! But. But it was very distracting and I admit I was a little relieved when he left halfway through so I could concentrate!

I do love that people of all different shapes/ages/sizes/exercise levels, etc do Zumba. If you are curious about it, go try it! I guarantee you'll have fun! I even talked my mom into it and now she loves it and is going to go at least twice a week:)
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That being said, it was a good day. Nothing too exciting happened, except Z got a small basketball and he spent some time practicing this afternoon. It's very hard to teach him things because he wants to do it HIS OWN WAY. Because he knows everything. Sigh.


I do hope that practicing will help him gain some confidence for his class. We want him to have fun while he learns!
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I am going to start helping B grade papers for his classes, something I actually really enjoy doing. We are both getting something out of the deal. He gets to save time (and time is VERY precious when you are dissertating and working 2 jobs!) and I get a trip to JoAnns! (when we get money, of course:)

Anyways, he has been telling me for a few weeks how a lot of his students, especially in his first class, are not trying at all and not listening. This is completely different from a University of Chicago student where the prof says something ONE time and you'd better remember it. It's very frustrating for a teacher to say things 8 times and have the student say, "Huh?"

So he gave them an open-note quiz last week (OPEN NOTE, mind you) and most of the people got the essay questions totally wrong!! Seriously, it was like "What color are apples? Support this with 2 arguments." (This was not the question, of course, but I am going to show you how ridiculous the answers were.)

"Apples are purple because God wanted apples to look like Him and apples grow in the ground. Therefore they are purple."

"Apples are red. God made them red so we could see them and diversify the integrative perspective of the narrative." (huh?)

"Bananas are yellow. They are good to eat because they are healthy, in my eyes."

Seriously. I wanted to mark so many of them with a 0 but Ben said I had to be nice:) Darn it. He said they do a lot of coddling at this university and he has to go right along with the flow. When this one girl answered her questions perfectly, I wanted to draw exclamation points and stars all over her paper. But I didn't:) She did get extra credit though...

I pray when he gets THE job, he can work at a place where students are stimulated and encouraged to learn and try hard; a place where he can feel like he is really teaching and helping them think and learn.

And a place where the students can tell the difference between apples and bananas.

Alright, I know you think I've totally lost it by now. I'll try to be more normal tomorrow so don't give up on me! :)

Today's One....or Two Liners.

Here is a summary of our day...in one or two liners:)

*Tonight at Zumba, I knocked over someone's water bottle and water spilled everywhere.

*I also smelled like garlic from dinner tonight. At least vampires won't want me.

*I may never show my face again.

*I'm going to lemon juice my hands riiiight now....

*We had a fantastic dinner tonight, using said garlic, called Sofrito Chicken, a recipe my friend passed on to me. We ate it with black beans and rice and it was deeeeelicious!

*Except I had to de-skin a chicken and it was quite possibly the grossest thing I have ever done.

*Morton (and Co.?) is apparently here to stay. He has now baffled 3 different men from the company that comes over and no one knows what to do.

*I never knew mice were so smart.

*Samuel had T-ball tonight and hit a ball the first time it was pitched to him! He is getting such confidence in his new skills:)

*Zakkai is loving preschool and is VERY proud of the papers he's bringing home that he worked on in school:) Today he worked on patterns.

*Eliana is a Biscuit.

*I made muffins this morning that were a big failure.

*Eliana wouldn't even eat them. And that's a very good indicator of failed muffins.

*I figured out the way to Ben's heart today: Eliana and freshly picked apples from the farmer's market (until we get our own.)

*He loves me.

*He loves apples.

*And Eliana.

*I also love all three of those things;)

Good night!

First and...Last Day of Preschool?

My Z-Man started preschool this morning. And as you can see, he was very excited:) He's been such a buddy these past 2 weeks but is definitely so stimulated by the socialization and learning he does in school and needs to go.

Unfortunately, I could tell immediately that it is not a good fit for him:( Better now than later, I guess! The preschool director led me to believe it was something it wasn't and even told me there was going to be at least one other boy his age in class.

But there isn't. He was in a class with a bunch of 2 and barely 3 year olds. Not exactly what Z needs! There is a huge difference in kids with those age gaps. I talked with the director and told her this afternoon that I didn't think it was going to work out. She asked us to come on Thursday to give it one more try and seems to think he will learn such great leadership and self-confidence skills if he stays.

While that may be true....he also needs to be learning and socializing with kids his own age. He's too smart of a cookie to be in such a young class. Thankfully, last minute we found a spot in the park's district program and he will be starting Monday! This program seems like a much better fit for him with what he will be learning: music, art, computer, gym, math, reading, etc. Plus he will go 4 days a week, which he really wants.

I hope it works out better!

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Tonight I worked up enough courage to go try a Zumba class for the first time at the Y! I have really been wanting to try it for awhile but fear of throwing out my hips or tripping on someone and causing a Zumba-wipeout have kept me from going;)

Tonight I told a friend and Ben to encourage me to go, no matter what! I knew I'd be glad if I went....and I am! It was SO much fun!

I had no clue what I was doing but watched the instructor and the people around me and wiggled, shimmied, and stepped to the latin beat of the (very loud) music for an hour. Best time I've had exercising ever!

I'm going back next week:)

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And in other news, Morton the Mouse has moved in to stay it seems. The "mouse peeps" have been over twice and obviously they haven't found his secret hideout, as he hasn't touched any of the bait they set out and has another entrance other than the ones they sealed up.

He's a sneaky one, that Morton. It's usually me that is the lucky one to see him but tonight alone, Ben has seen him FOUR times. He's either really desperate for something or he really likes us.

I going to go with the latter:)

So here's to a better preschool, getting in shape while having fun and living with mice!

What an exciting life I lead....