And another ...

Still going...

Someone asked me recently why I'm not using the same basic templates from previous days, just slot in new photos, leave the rest of the pretties.  Ummm no good answer to that except that you know me, I love to do things the hard way.  That's just the way I roll !!

Credits Designer Digitals.

Will December ever end...

I have made a pact that I will finish these pages by the end of the month, but I don't like my chances.  16 December was a pretty big day, we did the big family Christmas celebration before Christmas.  And I loved every single minute of it.    So I couldn't fit it just into a double page, this one went for four pages!

Credits Designer Digitals.

The group family photograph, I made good use of the tripod my mum had given me earlier in the day.  I took two photographs, it was all I could do to keep everyone in the one spot.  After the second one was snapped the kids behind us started laughing and told me to look in the viewfinder and I could see that Miss T and her fiance were having a smooch.  So that made this photo the best one of all.  I loved it.

Running with the Bulls

Oh yeah!

So this afternoon seemed like a great afternoon to go for a jog.  I announced to Mike that in preparation for the Market to Mount fun run next month, I might see if I can run up Mt. Noorat.  Don't get excited, it's not that big, but it would be a good training run.  Being that both of us have never gone up the Mt. Noorat walking track before, Mike said he'd come as well.  I could jog while he would walk and take photos, some inspiration for his oil paintings that he likes to do.  Win - win.

It was quite warm, I knew it would be, so I had slopped on the sunscreen.  But OH GOD THE FLIES!!!  I'm glad I'm not a vegetarian because the amount of flies I snarfed up my nose and in my mouth as I was running was nothing short of phenomenal.  I wonder if Mish's calorie counter has the count for flies, hmmmm?

Now this is private property and it's so very good of the owner to allow the public to use this, but the track, well it wasn't much of a track in parts, my legs are now scratched from the undergrowth in the scrubby bits, and stupid me didn't even think of the possibilities of snakes.  Giving me the heebie jeebies thinking of it now though.

But I was going great guns, got out of the scrubby bit and then came to face off with a bull guarding his bit of the track.  Well I thought it was a cow to start with until he stood up.  There were three others like him just up on the left.  Hmmmm, what to do?  I don't actually know how fast bulls can run, but then again I have seen the running with the bulls in Pamplona on telly and they look like they can run pretty fast.   

Okay, take stock of the situation.  Mike had caught up to me by this stage.  I asked whether he thinks we should just wander past the bull and his three mates and he reckoned if it was him alone he would (yeah right, big brave man, easy to say now) but me being Miss Scaredy Pants at the time decided not to.

OKAY DON'T JUDGE ME PEOPLE!!!   He was an angry assed bull,you didn't see his eyes as he stared at me daring me to run past him.  Truly!

Hey and I'm not kidding, there really is a teeny tiny track in there, can you see me? ha!  Why oh why wasn't I thinking snakes when I was there, this is truly giving me the scares now seeing where I was standing with bare legs!  So disappointment aplenty we drove back home, but decided to stop at the lake, so whilst Mike lounged in the car and listened to the radio, I ran two laps of the lake, so all was not lost.

I'm still plodding along with the December Daily,and while I'm at it, I want to give a shout out to Lynne from Never too hot to Stitch.    I love that she has taken on the role of my personal trainer for the December Daily.  I love this comment she gave me recently:

Now, come on, Carol, where's that spirit that took your through the pain of 12wbt? A change of attitude is called for here! (listen to your personal trainer, I'm encouraging you to put some grunt into it!! LOL).  Looking good and you'll love it when you're done (and not just because it's behind you!)

Lynne, mate, you've just scared me a little there! tee hee.  As long as you don't make me drop and give you 10 burpees, I'm onto it!  

And another couple...

Moving right along on my journey through December.   Will it ever end??   ~~sigh~~

and

Credits Designer Digitals

No need for Mike to know about the bah humbug pom pom, right?  Mum's the word!!

So many projects!

Gaaaaah!  I have so many plans of things I want to do this year.  I have three books in my head that I want to make, and I decided this would be my year of learning too.

BUT ... I don't want to start any of it before I finish my bah humbug December Daily!  Yeah right Carol, that's the spirit.  ha.   I know I will love this album when I'm finished, but I'm a bit OCD in that I have to finish this before I start something new, and well Christmas is over and I just want to be done with it.  So I'm plugging away and will make a grand effort to finish, cross fingers, this week.

Gosh, that's put the pressure on.  Here's a couple more pages.

and

Credits Designer Digitals.

So, now having shown those pages, must tell you about what I got up to yesterday.  I learned how to fight.  Yep, me, boxed the living daylights out of my poor partner, but don't worry, she gave me back just as much.  I was lucky enough to take part in a Stand Your Ground workshop with Emazon.  Remember the scary lady that was on the Biggest Loser from time to time when they would take the contestants into a caged boxing ring?  Well that was she.  And the short red hair has been replaced by long blonde hair.  

It all goes hand in hand with the weight loss, health enducing, mind bending journey I am on.

The Stand Your Ground workshop:  "This workshop is a combination of physical training in the form of self defense fight training and a Mind Fitness to help understand your behaviour and ability to manage the mind in relation to your training, self authority and health."

I came out of the workshop feeling like I could take on the world.  I hope that this feeling stays with me and I can put into practice with a clarity everything I learnt, knowing it's okay to want and EXPECT the best.

Here's me with Emma yesterday.  She has such a presence.

And here's a video about the Stand Your Ground if you are interested in hearing more about it, and how body transformation and fighting and mind fitness and your spirit all goes hand in hand.

That's all !  

Fancy a run?

Sooooo you may wonder about some of this running I've been doing.   I had entered into the Surf T Surf and today was the day.   I woke up nervous, tried to get my number straight on my shirt about five times, couldn't get the timing chip to thread through my laces without going through the netting on my runners, arrrgh!  We left early to get there in time and walking down the Flagstaff Hill roundabout to Lake Pertobe a sense of foreboding came over me.  This was a freaking big hill and was one we would have to run up in the first minutes of the run.  I despaired.  Sense of bravado in this photo!

Met up with some of our awesome Warrnambool & Surrounds 12wbt crew, everyone was pumped, excited, nerves setting in.  All awesome women in their own rights.  Mike was chief photographer for us, snapping photos of our group.  He just kept taking photos of anyone I was yakking to!  Looking pretty fresh here, before the race.

I'm beginning to see a pattern emerging - what's with my hands on hips look?!!

When the 6K runners were called to line up I was nearly jumping out of my skin.  A quick hug to my friend Jane who was running with her entire family and we were off.  There I am in the throng of runners.

Chugging up that first hill was a real effort.  A number of runners had started walking almost straight away, but I kept plugging at it breathing heavily, I continued on at a slow run and got down the main street and my legs were screaming.  Walked about 20 paces and set off running again.  That was the theme to my run.  Ran as much as I could then walked 20-30 paces then set off again.  The hills nearly did me in but I knew if I could make it to the tops I was able to run down.

At the stage at about the 3K mark where the route turned and met up with the 10K runners who had done another 4K out to Hopkins River, I was passed by a few of my workmates who were running the 10.  Calls of encouragement to me were just what I needed, and at one stage when I started walking up a bit of a hill at Timor Street, I will never forget a big booming voice coming up behind me ordering me ... "COME ON CAROL PICK UP THOSE LEGS, GET YOURSELF RUNNING, SCALE THAT HILL, YOU CAN DO IT!!"  It was one of the fellas from my work who is also in the Army, who was barking out orders to me like a drill Sergeant and got me up and over the hill.

It was so encouraging to see people had set up chairs on their nature strips and were calling out and clapping too.  If there is a power of people willing each other to keep going this was it.

I rounded the corner back to the dirty angel at a pace and needed to walk a bit back at Canon Hill when I saw my friend Esther snapping photos which got me running again.

Back down that blasted first hill back to Lake Pertobe, oh the joy of running down hill, and then I could hear the loudspeaker and see the flags and all the people cheering as the runners got to the last 100 meters.  I ran through that finish line red faced and could feel the tears prick.   I had done it.  I'd estimate I ran 3/4 of the event and walked only about 1/4;  and did the 6K in 45 mins 8 seconds.  I was aiming to do it under 60mins so was thrilled with the result.  I came 400th in a field of 424 finishers in the 6K run.  Something to work on.

I really need to work on my goofy faces - me at the finish line

Legs were wobbly and I could see Mike grinning madly snapping the camera.  And soon enough we were celebrating with our fabulous 12wbt girls, hugs and squeals that we all had faced our own particular challenges and demons, all accomplished.

RED FACED AFTER THE RACE!!

with the most supportive group of ladies I could ever hope to meet

so lucky I am a part of Warrnambool & Surrounds !

What a high I was on.  Have never felt quite like it.  And quite frankly I want more, I feel like this is just the beginning!  And the thrill for me to end the day was meeting Australian's greatest Olympic/World marathon champion runners Steve Moneghetti.

And having said of all this and regaled you with the story of the day, the one person I couldn't have done this without his support or belief in me on my weight loss journey and my fitness goals and running dreams, is Mike. My husband has been my own personal cheer squad  and has encouraged me every step of the way.  Tonight he said  "I'm so proud of you, you've come such a long way and turned a real corner today, you can do it, nothing is impossible."   Thank you honey.  :-)

Oh and the other "celeb" (in the scrapbooking world!!) I got to catch up with was Esther.  She looks absolutely gorgeous and I'm red faced, sweaty and puffy.  Go figure.  

Now, when is that next Fun Run to work towards ...?

Happy New Year!

Last night was not just New Years Eve, the celebration of winding up 2012 and heading into a brand new future in 2013, but it was also my step-daughter's engagement party, a masquerade one at that!

I'm a bit sad to see 2012 finish, it was the year where I started to rediscover myself.  I weighed in on Monday so I could know exactly how much weight I had lost last year since the start of May.  26.1 kilograms gone (that's 57 pounds).

That's 26.1 kilograms of frustration, sadness, embarrassment, pain, and a whole lot of heartache.  And funnily enough I don't want to forget any of it.  I want to remember it so I know that I have a bright and shining future full of health and vitality and I never have to go back to those feelings due to my weight.  They are there, they represent my past, and are something I do want to remember so I can compare it to how amazingly good I feel right now.

So last night was Miss T's engagement party.  We are usually sooooo boring on NYE, stay home, watch a movie, see the fireworks on TV, go to bed.  I've said to Mike in the past that one NYE I want to dress up and have a fine time and watch fireworks.  Last night was the night.

I had planned to wear the dress I wore to finale to Miss T's engagement party, and yet, it was a tad too big.  I delved into my wardrobe and still on the hanger, still with tags, was a beautiful red dress I bought absolutely YEARS ago.  It never fitted.  It was one of those dresses that was a classic and I hoped that one day I would fit.  Yesterday was the day.  It fitted perfectly.   A quick pic in the front yard before we left.

I FELT A MILLION DOLLARS !!!!!!!!!!!!

So glad I set up the tripod and took this photo, because when you hand your "big girl camera" over at a party, you never know what you're going to come away with.  ENOUGH SAID RIGHT?

It was such a fun night, Mike just lights up getting to spend time with the kids and on such a special night of the year.  Here are some of the other photos from the night that I really loved, and yes we did get a couple of nice photos taken even when I handed the camera over.

Oh did I mention, it was a masquerade party!!  Funny thing was we didn't know the colour scheme of what they were wearing, and we matched perfectly.

How amazing is that cake, white chocolate mud cake in four layers - red/white/red/white.   I had a very very small piece and it was incredible, made by Tabby's mum.

Red braces, I forgot I gave these to him years ago

Now I must explain about the black suit with the gold pinstripes.  Dare I even admit, they are actually pyjamas!  Number one stepson wore them for a bit of a laugh and NYE fun.  They are actually thicker than silk pj's, and were a total hit.  Obviously he didn't want to get any of his dinner on them!

Step-daughter number 2.  Miss B gets more beautiful each day.

And as for youngest step-son, it's really hard to get a photo of him looking at the camera, so this is what happens, a stack of profile shots!  :-)

Love this photo of the two of us. 

Here's one of the four of us without our masks, I'll treasure this photo.

This girl deserves everything good in the universe, she is a bright and shining light full of goodness.  A bit poetic perhaps, but so true.

At midnight we went to watch the fireworks, it wasn't a long show of them, perhaps 4 to 5 minutes. I've never photographed fireworks before and I had done my homework on a number of sites and was thrilled with this shot.   I had the camera set up on the gorilla pod on the top of the car roof and it was hard getting the timing right, so this more so was probably a fluke than anything.  But I'll take fluke any day!!

It was the perfect end to the most magical night of the perfect year.  And I'm looking forward to seeing what 2013 will bring.  Happy New Year everyone.