Muscovies

Sorry I've been so quiet. I guess I needed a bit of a break. :) Things are starting to look up again now that I'm able to fall into my old routine. I'll try to update tomorrow about Jackal's tricks. For now enjoy these pictures of my pretty Muscovy ducks now that they are all grown up. I'm proud of my ducks and I really enjoy them.

My favorite piebald Muscovy hen. Isn't she adorable?

I had to sneak one of my Buckeye hen in too.

Click for a close up of her dinner. Ew gross!

I think this one is my favorite picture. :)

Which is your favorite? The lighting didn't turn out well on a couple of them, but I still like them all. :)

Workout Week Off

Sigh. Last Monday I tried out sprint intervals. I really liked it actually. I walked for five minutes to warm up, then I sprinted thirty seconds (turned to jogging as I got more tired lol) and walked ninety seconds. Repeat six times and then walked five minutes to cool out. Unfortunately when I went inside to cool off I had a heat rash on my chest . . . crap! If you haven't had a heat rash, basically it's when your sweat glands get clogged and infected. Everything I read said stay out of the heat and it will go away in three or four days. So I stopped exercising and stayed in the air conditioning.

After four days it was Friday and I couldn't go to the doctor so I decided to wait until Monday (today) to go to the doctor, which means an entire week of no exercise. I can't believe how negatively it has affected my mood already. I miss working out. I miss the energy it gave me.

I've never had a heat rash, but from doing research and looking at pictures I'm sure it's what I had. The weird thing is that it spread to my stomach, back, neck and my entire arms. It's even on my face a little bit. It basically looks like goose bumps (chill bumps) that don't go away. It's only red if I go outside and get hot. So I tried everything I could think of vinegar, desitin, baking soda bath, gold bond powder, benadryl (orally and topically), etc. For the first three or four days it didn't itch at all. Then it started itching on my chest where it first started. The itching spread to my neck, so I figure that means it's healing. When I got up this morning bumps were very much diminished. On my chest it doesn't even feel like there are any bumps, just a a little redness. I think it's healing at the same speed it spread so my arms and face will probably heal last unfortunately. Luckily it's not very noticeable at all. It just looks like goosebumps. So I think I'll skip the doctor since it's healing and I don't have health insurance or money. Save it for an actual emergency. Most rashes don't require medical attention anyway. I don't have a fever, not tired, nothing. Anyone ever experienced a heat rash like that? Or maybe it was hives? I thought hives went away quickly though. I did mow on Monday too and I have horrible grass/tree/plant allergies.

So nothing to report on the exercise. I think I'm going to try to pick back up some of my exercise since the rash doesn't bother me. I spent some time outside today taking picture of the horses and it's not red, hot or inflamed. That's a good sign. :)

Jackal's Prize

Jackal's other prize for winning Best Costume in Honey's Dancing With the Doggie Stars Contest arrived. I'll let the pictures tell the story . . .

"Look at what I got in the mail!"

"It smells like Jed and Abby."

"Open it mom!"

"Fine I'll do it."

"Hmm, doesn't smell like cookies."

"A disco ball?"

"Where are my cookies?"

"Thanks Jed and Abby! For the ball . . . I can't even chew on or fetch . . ."

"Whoa! Lights! This is awesome! Thanks guys!"

"Cool, but why was mom trying to shove it in my face? Sheesh. The lights are really great though."

Well Jed and Abby, Jackal may not be overly impressed but I sure love the disco ball. :) Jackal's favorite part was the packaging . . .

Those eyes melt my squishy little heart.

I hope you guys enjoyed the picture. We sure enjoyed receiving our package, opening it and watching the pretty disco ball. :) You guys are great!

Workout Week Six

Yay!!!! Week six done! I completed the six week challenge. That's officially the longest I've ever stuck with a formal work out plan. :D I'm excited.

Week Five

Strength Training: Tuesday, Thursday & Sunday
Yoga/Pilates/Tae Bo: Monday & Friday
Biking: Sunday (5.1 miles)
Walking: Monday (2.4 miles) & Friday (2.5 miles)

On the strength training I did everything at forty pounds, 2 sets of 10-15 reps. On Tuesday I did my Biceps Curl at 30 pounds because I'm having trouble with the weight (only able to do 8 reps). On Thursday and Sunday I did them at 20 pounds and was able to do all 15 reps. I'm going to start doing low weight, high reps on the biceps. I'm not after big muscles anyway lol. On Tuesday I didn't do my leg exercise or back exercise because my hamstrings were really sore from the Tae Bo we did on Monday.

Monday I did 30 minutes of Tae Bo with my friend/work out partner and boy were the stretches intense! My hamstrings hurt for two days lol. I need to do more stretching. I can't even touch my toes. On Friday I did approx. 20 minutes of Yoga with my friend, but I wimped out because the routine we were doing kept going back to a Vinyasa containing a lot of Downward Dog and my wrists gave out. They are weak in general, but I had fallen and bruised my hand a few days before so that made it worse. Some of the poses felt really awesome though. I need to get more consistent with the Yoga.

On Monday I actually went on two walks. One was a mile with the dogs and the other was 1.4 miles with my husband. On Friday I was actually on a treadmill and I was walking/running intervals. I'd walk one minute, run one minute, walk one minute, etc. A couple of times I even managed to run two minutes which is really amazing for me. :D I forgot I'd raised the incline though so my calves have been really sore for several days. Ouch! It was cool running on a treadmill again though because I was able to see my speeds. I was walking at 4mph and running at 5.5mph. :)

So that's a recap of week six. Now here is my new work out routine for the next six weeks.

I'll be working out four times a week, so I'll have to get really strict with myself. If I miss a day it will wreck my whole schedule. There isn't as much leeway. The new routine will consist of Day 1 & 3 doing 1-3 sets of 10-12 reps of Bench Press, Seated Shoulder Press, Triceps Pushdown, Biceps Curl and Leg Extension. Then Day 2 & 4 doing 1-3 sets of 10-12 reps of Seated Lat Rows, Seated Lat Pulldowns, Crossover Rear Deltoid Row, Biceps Curl, Reverse Curl, Standing Low Back Extension and Seated Abdominal Crunch. So for example I'll work out Monday and Tuesday, take Wednesday off, then repeat on Thursday and Friday. That leaves the weekend free because I get up really early to open the store and work really long hours. Fun! I'm just happy there are new exercises to learn hehe.

I'm going to skip today since I worked out yesterday, so I'll only work out three times this week and then I'll pick up a normal schedule next week. Sorry for the long winded post lol. It's a mile marker. :D

P.S. I'm trying out a free online workout based on interval training. I'm going to see if I like it this week and if I do I'll share it with you all next week. It looks cool so far, but I don't want to waste your time if it turns out to be phony or ineffective. :)

Sunday Stills - The Letter B

This week for Sunday Stills we were challenged to take pictures of things starting with the letter B. I had fun taking my camera to town with me to get some pictures. I found more B things than I expected. :D

Bicycle

Blue Nook Book

Barn

Billboard

Buick
]

Blue Birdhouse

More Birdhouses

Bags of Feed

Backside of a Bird

Balloon

Buildings

Brake Lights (not to mention gunky Brown Buildup)

My Blue Car

Bread
I bet you never would have guessed. The restaurant next to where I work gives me their old stale bread and I let the chickens eat it. They like to eat the crust first. I like all the little chicken beak dents. :)

Boat

Barking Beagle Cross

That was fun! Check out some more B pictures at the Sunday Stills blog. :D

My Cute Jackal

I was taking pictures for Sunday Stills tomorrow and got some really cute pictures of Jackal that I thought I would share. I was using continuous shoot to get pictures of him barking. I love how hard he works at barking. All of the adorable expressions he makes. :) Enjoy and sorry for the picture overload.

Cute right?