Josh and Becca Thrap and Family

You know, after almost two months of not really blogging, it is kinda hard to get back into the swing of it. Sure, plenty of things are happening in our lives, but when I sit down with the intention of writing about them…the words, they fail me. I quickly give up and move on to something else. But I do miss the communication with my readers and the occasional feedback. I have less time to slack off for myself these days though now that my mornings are all tied up with going to exercise at the Y. I’ve been going every weekday and exercising for at least one hour (with the exception of last Friday because my exercise buddy and I decided to go shopping instead and make up for it by going in for 2 hours on Saturday!) Unfortunately, at the very end of our two-hour marathon on the gym equipment I experienced one of the most embarrassing things that can happen to a person in the gym. I can only imagine it would have been any more embarrassing if my pants had fallen off in the process. I’m sure many of you have seen a youtube clip similar to what I am about to describe–I myself have laughed out loud at that clip. And trying to place my battered self into the mind of an uninvolved third party, I think I can tell you without a doubt that if someone had put my experience up on youtube you would laugh even harder. Girl falls off treadmill. Classic. Now imagine it is my big fat body and not only do I start to roll off of my treadmill, but as I fall I lose balance and fall not backwards, but sideways behind my exercise neighbor onto her treadmill and then roll backwards horizontally off of both treadmills until I hit the floor in a Stop. Drop. Roll. type of move, bouncing up like a gymnast at the end to calm the poor old woman who had been RUNNING on the treadmill next to me with her earphones in oblivious to what was happening until it was all over her, reassuring her that I was fine and it was in NO way her fault and that she should really just return to her run and ignore me limping out of the gym. Back at home, out of sight of those who might snicker to see me check my wounds, I found that I had skinned and bruised my knee (impressively without any damage to my pants!), bruised that same shin, bruised the opposite calf, and scraped my shoulder. While the calf bruise is actually the biggest and most painful, the knee scrape has been the most problematic because it just did not want to scab over and the raw flesh kept rubbing against my pants anytime I’d move so I had to keep it bandaged for almost three days. And of course the kids keep trying to climb up on me or snuggle next to me and just randomly kick around at my legs and knees. Feeling sorry for me yet? Well, although my pride was definately bruised as well, I did not let it stop me from returning to the gym Monday morning. Yesterday I had my physical fitness evaluation with the wellness instructor at the Y and although we all know I need to lose some body fat, the tests revealed that I am within the “Excellent” range or even off the charts with excellence in the categories of sit-ups (or crunches) and flexibility. I have to do a bench press on Friday and I don’t expect to be as excellent at that. But I am feeling good that my embarrassment has not kept me from the gym to work toward my goals. Nor has the hassle of taking the kids, nor the cold weather or the bad snow-covered roads–even the days that I have to get up earlier to make it fit into my schedule have not deterred me. So I am hopeful.