Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone. It was very nice to all be together for Christmas Eve. My brother and his wife goes to his in-laws today for Christmas Day. My youngest sister and her family have her in-laws over.

One of the things I always try to do is get a family picture. and i got TONS of moans and groans. So I started out doing photos of the kids, then I had my 15 yr old nephew set my camera on the tripod. Next thing was to get everyone to come in. I had the self timer set to go off ten times and YES it was a success! I have a few good ones to choose from. That made my Christmas!

Enjoy your day. Stay safe and warm.

Gift for my mom

This is a gift i ordered for my mom from Lisa Leonard. They make hand-made unique jewelry. My mom saw a commercial for a bracelet where you add charms, then I saw this on the site and thought I'd add each grandchild's name. When I received it Saturday, I was overjoyed with it that I had to take many photos. I can't wait for my mom to open it.

Merry Christmas. It's coming soon and its snowing hard here!

Blogs

I find it quite interesting that people can find my blog or any others that interest them....then again I suppose that wouldn't happen if I didn't check 'yes' for google to search out my blog. The reason I'm mentioning this is because I have been talking a lot about the Lite Gaite treadmill on my recent blogs. I received an email yesterday from a lady who works with mobility research. She said a colleague contacted her about my blog. I asked who her colleague is and where she is from. I have only posted one picture of me on the Lite gaite and I was done with my walking and was swinging, my therapists thought that was funny. This lady says how I'm not hooked up right etc. My therapists are wonderful and are very knowledgeable in the Lite Gaite. So you can't go by that picture of me swinging to tell if the straps aren't on correct.

Like I said before I had a bunch of pictures on my memory card of me in high gear working out. I felt much more stable without my hands and my upper body was not swaying as i may have previously have stated in a post. Scott, my therapist, said that is normal until i get the momentum going.

Just had to get that off my chest. My therapists are wonderful and i'm treated great. If something didn't feel right, I'd say so.

So, the card issue....I called Best Buy and the gal said there's a knob on the side of the card that could have slid down. But it seems kind of hard to do so on its own. She also said any kiosk would be able to retrieve them. We first took to Best Buy's geeksqad and they were unable. I'm going to try a couple other photo places before i reformat the card. If Best Buy can't, then I'm a bit iffy others can. Its worth a try.

i walked one mile around the gym Thursday. Only took two small breaks. My last few laps were really strong. Then I was working on the leg-extension and was relaxed and all the sudden Eldon scared the living daylights out of me. He said he just was trying to get my heart rate up! Such a jokester he is. I need to figured out how to get back at him!! :)
Then I was playing around with camera (different memory card), and since Scott and I didn't get a picture together the other day, we did an armshot one. Then i took some goofy pics of Chris, Scott and Eldon! They did such goofy poses, i couldn't help but not laugh. Tuesday I am going to try and take a picture of everyone thats there - some may be gone for Christmas vacation!! I'll just do my laps with camera around neck. That won't look weird at all!! Ah hahaha

Abby had her school program yesterday. She did so great. My friends daughter is in the same class and as soon as she saw me she smiled so BIG. It was really cute. I think i might have distracted her!
Then I got home and Scott emailed that he & his wife just found out they are having a baby girl!! YAY!
I think I got a 'good' bokeh shot from my parents tree.
Sunday the 19th my niece Madeline turns 4! She is so cute and says such sassy funny things. She's one where I have to keep snapping because she moves around so quick!
Off to watch Elf and bag up my gifts to bring to my parents!
Have a great day.....until next time Peace out!
And if you do read my blogs, please leave a comment.
Especially if you work for a mobility company. Thank you. :)

Camera troubles

Actually its not 'camera troubles', its more stupidity on my part. I bought my camera in April, bought a card then and used it all summer - no issues. I then bought a bigger card before my Albuquerque trip, and took over 800 pics, which is nothing compared to what the other girls shot. Holy Macrole.

So anyway, I wanted to bring my camera today to gym as this is my last session with Scott (PT) before we meet up in a couple months. We go for a little bit, take a break then start up again. I'm still at the gym working out; just moreso on my own. So it will be interesting to see how i do on my laps. I had Scott take pictures of me in action on the Lite Gaite. Just showing me walking and hooked up to the machine. Then he starts to get this message saying "Card Not Formatted", I tried to power on and off but nothing and then Terrance tried to get a photo of Scott & I and he kept getting that message and nothing would happen thereafter. So I took it home and thought I could work some magic.....but I can't even retrieve images off my card. I had other bokeh pictures on there, just playing around practicing photography. Grrrrr, guess i should have maybe formatted my card BEFORE I used it. I put in my other card and did format that - I never knew. Guess i should have read the manual a little more closer! I'm hoping someone can get back to me and tell me how to retrive those images. I think I'm SOL.

So, today I did 5 intervals, I think. We'd bump it up to 3.1 and I'd walk that pace for a minute, then slow down for a minute. On and on......I think my last one was 3.5. That was a workout, i couldn't help but not laugh, trying to catch up. So when all was done I walked 30 min 1o sec, and I fluctuated between 2.3 and 2.4 for speed and kept bumping it up. I was at 2.7 at the end making that 1.31 miles. I'm not sure exactly how far it is, but its further than last time; which is good. I hope by next May, I don't leave my uncle in the dust. hehehe
My goal now is to keep this up. I'd like to try the treadmill in the gym, but i had issues before and am not sure I feel comfortable with doing it without having someone near me. They are talking about me using the Lite Gaite - I'd have to have someone hook me up and then i can pretty much walk on my own. I'll just hang til someone can unhook me. For now, I'll do my laps in the gym. Thats how I see everyone anyway!

Oh, before I walked on the Lite Gaite, Scott cracked my back and he got some good pops. (thats the reason I wanted to come to him in the first place - I thought he'd just crack me!! ah haha)

Until next time, stay warm and eat lots of goodies!
I better start my wrapping too.

Another December Day

I went to PT this morning and right away we get started on the Lite Gaite treadmill. Scott first had me start at a slow pace to warm up, then I went to my 2.4 speed and tried to not hang on; it was more of a challenge then I thought as my upper body was swaying weird. He said thats normal as I'm hooked up in this device (I'll get a new picture next week) and my body wants to rotate. We did some intervals also, where Scott would bump me up to the speed of 3.1 for one minute, then i slowed down and went up to 3.2 and up to 3.4 (I think) with these one minute intervals. I couldn't help but not laugh when i was going super fast because I HAD to keep moving! I passed that and then I decided to keep walking at the 2.3 pace. I was halfways to a mile already, so I just kept on and when i was done I did 1 mile.15 at 27.15 time and I averaged 2.4 pace. Then I went in the gym, dampened a washrag and layed down, put it over my face and just relaxed! Ahhhhh - Terrance was going to ask if I was ok, glad he didn't because i'm sure he would have scared me. I was pretty relaxed so who knows if I would have even moved. I then saw him and told him how i did!! I just need to keep it up - I slack at home!
Everyone at the gym is so helpful and they always encourage me on! Great people!
Then Charlotte and I were visiting. We haven't visited in soooooooooo long, so it was great to catch up in person. She bought a new camera and she hadn't taken a picture. I said well lets take an arm-shot photo. She's like arm shot? I then demonstrated by holding the camera out. So I taught her something new!

Then this afternoon I met up with Jeannie. She helped me get my device I communicate with. We were trying to develop some type of mentoring program where I could either go to schools and talk with a student or students so they aren't as apprehensive in using devices. Also with adults who may have had a stroke and may need some type of 'voice' to help them communicate. Lots of brainstorming. We also talked about Shutterfly - my nieces book came so she was able to look at that quick. I think if we had more time, we'd still be yakking away.
It was fun.

My sister called me and she told me she picked up gifts for her son and daughter for me to give them. I still need to get her youngest something. Christmas shopping is stressful especially when I'm usually done and wrapped by now. Ugh! My sister said she'll drop the gifts off which means she needs to be paid ASAP! If she owed me money, she'd take her sweet time. In fact, i think she must still owe me for something.

I'm chatty and going on and on and probably putting you to sleep. I'm getting tired myself.
Later on this end!

Happy December

I'm a bit behind on my blogging. Oops-a-daisy!
I've been getting things geared up for Christmas. Took my dad out to get his gift as he is so hard to buy for, as is my mom. She mentioned she'd like a charm bracelet, so I ordered her one and now I have to get my nieces and nephews something. Been waiting paitently for my sister to give me ideas. Because it never fails that if i go ahead and buy something, then someone else has too. I'm usually done and wrapped by now.

I'm trying to take a photo a day for the Daily December challenge. I've been practicing taking photos, haven't uploaded them yet.

I got all my cards stuffed, stamped and mailed. I love sending cards!

I'm still keeping at it at gym. I'm a little annoyed some of my jeans no longer fit. I can't get them up past my thighs without squirming and kicking. So I gave up and I think I will just give them to a shelter. I don't know how my legs and butt could enlarge so much - they fit fine last spring! Grrrr - my PT guy said I'm just gaining muscle; which is a good thing.

So the last three times I was at gym, here are my results on the Lite Gait:
20.23 minutes at .86 and a speed of 2.3
20.13 minutes at .86 and my speed fluctuated between 2.3 and 2.5
Dec. 7 Scott had me do some endurance tests and asked if I wanted to do the Lite Gait after and I said yes. I passed all my tests; just need to keep the time up. Then Terrance hooked me up to the Lite Gaite. I really felt good and strong. I went for 27.13 minutes - I kept my speed at 2.3 and bumped it up to 2.4 towards last leg. I wanted to go at this speed as i had done so much before with the endurance tests. So I thought this speed would work best and I felt great, kept a steady pace, back was straight and I made it, I went a little over a MILE at 1.13! So now I just have to keep that up and hopefully by the time the 5k rolls around, i'll be in much better shape. Plus after that I did a bunch of running around in stores. i wasn't literally running around in the stores, but you get the idea.
Happy Decemeber. Its cold up here. We are having a heat wave Thursday at 25 degrees!
Woo-hoo!
Thats all from this end for now!