San Diego

This weekend I drove to San Diego with one of my instructors of a Fit4Baby training. It was a good trip, but an adventure at that! Shawn and I left Friday at 9:45. We took the long way to the freeway (GPS isn't always the way to go) and began our journey. When we talked about driving down I realized we would be in areas that I'm not in often! The Tarzana Armenian Deli was calling my name. So, after a few wrong turns, and a lot of traffic we made it to the Deli to meet my good friend Ernesto for lunch! It was WEIRD! I have to say if there is anywhere that I have lived that I don't miss..it is the San Fernando Valley. In the 45 minutes we sat and ate lunch, we witnessed a prostitute being picked up, two cars almost colliding at a stop sign because one idiot felt it was appropriate to do a strange turn in front of the other car, but we did have a good sandwich! I don't know what makes the sandwich so good! It's simple; turkey, mayo, mozzarella, pepperchinis, avocado, tomato, all rolled up in flat bread. However, this is a sandwich I have not ever been able to duplicate! So, in all honesty it was worth the detour for me. Not to mention it was wonderful seeing a good friend.

So, we journeyed on to San Diego. Following the GPS of course, and sitting in traffic for a good hour and half or so we ended up on a toll highway! Neither one of us had cash on us, so we exit before we have to pay the toll on a mission to find an ATM. So, another detour. We find the ATM and journey back onto out toll road. I would like to mention it was $5.75 for this detour, and I really don't think it saved us an ounce of time!!

Finally at around 6:00pm we roll into oceanside. Find our hotel (with a few wrong turns) and get checked in. The driving wasn't too bad, hips didn't hurt too bad, but my feet were slowly swelling up. Never did I think I would be the owner of Kankles! After putting my feet up for awhile we ventured on down by the ocean. Parked in the parking structure next to the bus stop, there were police men walking around so I didn't feel unsafe, but it was dark. As we looked for a place to eat we passed bar after bar. It was hilarious! Let me mention Shawn is as cute as could be. So, the boys standing in front of the bars see us walking towards them. They see her...do the little look up and down, look at me and turn away! I guess trying to get the pregnant lady into the bar didn't sound so appealing. IF that was all it took to get men to not bother you at bars, I would have bought a pregnancy suit a long time ago!!! So we ate dinner at this little cafe that closed at 9:30, and ventured back to the hotel.

5:30 am...we wake up. I turn the shower on, and it's yellow! The pipes were apparently rusty, or there was some funk in the water that I was clearly not touching! so, no showers for us! Our journey to the training began.

We spent the day at the training...nothing too adventurous happened there...until we were leaving and I discovered I couldn't find my wallet! We went back to the classroom, and it was found! It had fallen out of my bag with a t-shirt! However, it was almost a temporary heart attack! At 6:00 we were debating on making the turn to go to my grandpas for the night or venture back home. We decided to make the trip home. It was a long trip, but at 12:30 we pulled into the garage and had a great nights sleep!!! Now that is something that doesn't happen often.

So all in all it was a good trip. It will make the trip down south this weekend seem much shorter!

26 weeks, 14 to go!

I'm almost out of my second trimester and getting ready to enter into the third! It is crazy to think about how there is a body growing inside of mine. He is an active lil guy! In most of my books I read that when you are active it usually rocks them to sleep..not this one! He is truly "My Kid." I am preparing the house for lock down, and preparing the neighbors. Doggy doors should be locked unless you want an intruder, and if you see a lil hudini wondering around in a diaper he belongs to us! There are the few of you who have known me since I was a wee lil one, and they will all appreciate that comment! Really, I've been trying to explain that naps are good. If I knew what I knew now I would have slept much better as a child. No one would have to sit at my door wait for me to go sleep, no double locks to keep me from wondering the house at night, I would have let Scott watch TV by his lonslome instead of climbing out of bed before sun up to watch transformers, and some other crazy show that aired at 5:00 am. Sleep is good! Although I'm thiking that this lil guy doesn't agree. When I'm working out, he likes to do jumping jacks with me. When I am training he likes to remind me that I have abs too! (Although they feel much better when there's not a foot kicking them) The rest of his day is spent doing gymnastics! So in 14 weeks...be prepared...I think there will be very little sleep going on in the Blanton household.

Beat the Heat contest!

Jen Patrick, a friend of mine introduced me to a new natrual parenting blog! They have a contest to win the cloth diapers that we are using! So, if you're looking for a chance to win some cloth diapers follow the link!

Win a Bum Genius 3.0 Starter Kit from Nature's Child - Wholesome Goods for Mothers and Babies

What I do!

Do I work? Yes. However, it doesn't really seem like work. I am in the process of figuring out what my role is going to be when I become "mom." Currently, I am buisness owner, personal trainer, & doula. Well almost doula. My company is called Movin' Mamas. Under this name I own a franchise called Stroller Strides. I LOVE WHAT I DO! Stroller Strides is a fitness program for moms and moms to be. Really anyone could be apart of it, but the conversations usually pertain to mommy hood, and kids are with moms when they are working out. We don't simply "walk" in the parks. We meet at a park, we do walking and jogging intervals. We use resistant bands to tone and firm, and in the end we work out our abs and core. It's an amazing program and I highly recomment all new moms look into something like this. Not just because I own a franchise here, but because there is a built in community. Transitioning into mommy hood is hard enough. Sleepless nights, wondering if your crying child is alright, finding a place for your spouse in the midst of it all. These are all issues that moms seem to be able to talk through with each other and realize they are not alone. They have advise and suggestions, so hopefully you leave everyday feeling good mentally and physically. Not being a mom yet, I've built friendships that will last a lifetime. These are the girls that encouraged me when we were trying, talked with me through the hard times, and have been great support durring the pregnancy! So, that is Stroller Strides. I teach these classes, but I am preparing to grow and let others teach while I get ready to be a mommy. That doesn't mean I'm not going to be working at all. I have build a personal training studio in the house. I have clients 5 days a week as early as 5:00 am. I will probably maintain this until it's time to have this lil guy. As for being a doula, I am working on my certification. I have one birth down, and two more to go. I will hopefully attend a birth in August...now if I can get one more in July it would be perfect. I need 3 in order to send my packet into DONA. What is a doula? A doula in so many words is an assited labor coach. I could go on and on about this, but I'll leave that for another long winded post. My goal with this is to be able to one birth a month. I probably won't really do much with it until the baby is sleeping through the night, and I find someone I am comfortable calling on a whim to babysit. So, we'll see how it all plays out.
So aside from being a wife, decorator, cook, and being spoiled by my husband. I do work..it's just more of a fun lifestyle then a job.