My fit friend Julie. It was like Israel boot camp, but I could not have asked for a better person to tour with.

When I talked to Julie the week before our big trip, she mentioned that she enjoys walking, and she hoped to walk everywhere in Tel Aviv.

“Perfect, I love walking!” I said.

But then, as I got to know Julie better, I began to realize we were not exactly on the same level with the physical fitness. She walks, and she runs, and she exercises.

Julie is what we call fit. Super fit. I am more like what we call….not fit.

My gut closely resembles this Israeli statue…

He’s cute, isn’t he?

I could not have found a better person than Julie to tour Tel Aviv with. We were already acquainted well enough that I felt comfortable with her, and yet we were new enough of friends that there was no arguing. Ha!!!

Besides, Julie is awesome. She is laid back, intelligent, sensible, down to earth, and an excellent conversationalist, which is perfect because I often have a super hard time thinking of what to say. She also was better than me with figuring out where we were and how to get where we were going, which is important in a foreign country!

Go ahead and laugh. You know I have no sense of direction. And maybe you THINK I talk a lot, but inside I’m working hard to think of all those words.

This is the street in Tel Aviv that runs along the beach.

Tel Aviv Boot Camp

We had a routine that worked well. Breakfast and supper were free at our hotel, so that was what we ate. We had a late breakfast, skipped lunch, and then there was 4:00 tea time at our hotel, with snacks. Then there was dinner at 6pm.

So yeah, we just skipped lunch everyday. We probably did not save any calories though. They fed us so well at the hotel, we were not even hungry at lunch.

Tel Aviv Beach

Alan and I did a little walking on the beach together too.

The Shopping

You know I am thrifty, and Julie is too. I am so easily influenced by who I am hanging out with! I didn’t buy all that much, but we did walk around tons of shops and markets.

We went into Israel expecting to barter for everything. People had told us we would need to barter, and yet, that was not what we found. Maybe it is just different in Tel Aviv, but most everywhere we went the shop owners and workers said, “No, we don’t do that here. It’s just one price.”

I bought these Coca-Cola in Hebrew shirts for my 2 biggest boys.

I scored this entire outfit at the Shuk for only $100 shekels…That’s like $35!!

Funny story:

First of all, several different people asked Julie and me if we were from Germany. ???!!?? Germany? No! America! I found that odd, kind of funny, but also sad, considering Israel’s history with Germany.

But the funny story was the sales guy we met at the Shuk, where I bought that exercise outfit. He was an unusually friendly young Jewish man, probably around 24 years old, a cute, small guy. What I did not realize at first was that he actually lives in Miami, but he was in town for an event and helping his dad in their store that day.

“Where are you from?” he asked us, after explaining the day’s sales to us.

Each time people asked, I found myself not knowing what to call our country. Isn’t that hilarious? United States of America is sort of a mouthful. So sometimes I said America, and sometimes I called it the U.S. or the United States. That was not a sufficient answer for anyone that asked. Every single questioner wanted to know specifically what state we were from.

I move every 2 to 3 years, I do not truly belong to any one state, so my new policy is to claim to be from wherever I currently live.

This particular sales guy laughed when I said “America,” and said, “Well, yeah, I know, I mean I didn’t think you were from Germany!”

Julie and I looked at each other, mystified. Well, the rest of the country seems to think we are from Germany, and even this guy referenced it, so clearly their history left scars.

But he knew we lived in the States because he has been living in the U.S. himself for several years.

We bought this from an arts and crafts fair in downtown Tel Aviv.

We explained to the sales guy where we were from. He said to Julie, “You look like a runner!” Then they talked about running and swimming…Funny…no one ever asked me what sport I participate in……hahahahaha…

I was shopping for a cute exercise outfit, so I picked up Larges, but I’m usually borderline on sizes, so I was glancing around for a fitting room.

“Oh, you don’t need a large!” This sales guy had all the answers…”This stretches, see? You need a medium.”

Flattering, but I actually did not even need to try on the pants. I’m 5 foot 6 with enough hips for all 3 of us standing there. I require the large, and I am thankful I did not consider his advice.

Shirts are a different story. I have to try on every shirt I buy.

There I was, in a foreign country, trying on a shirt, in a storage closet, in an outdoor market area (The closet had walls. The store did not.), with Julie standing guard in the OPEN doorway, with the super talkative young sales guy, waiting outside the closet. He said he was waiting to “snap a photo (of me) and put it on Facebook.”

Laugh. Out. Loud. “Yeah, you are not putting this on Facebook.”

I was in such a hurry to be done with the process that I bought the shirt, without being sure if it fit well or not because I did not want to go out there and look in the mirror long enough for him to get a Facebook photo. (As it turns out, the shirt was far too spandex-y.)

Why do I care about him taking my picture? I am a blogger for crying out loud. My face is all over the internet. Yeah, well, I am a vain blogger who carefully crops out all chubby bits before posting pictures online, and me in a spandex work-out tank? No way was I putting that out there.

That sales guy was hilarious. He talked to us all the way out of the store, as we left, and invited us to come back and see him tomorrow.

I never did make it to the Dead Sea, but I did buy this soap at the craft fair, which was made from Dead Sea Mud.

Gotta love mud.

This was another character that we met. He had lot of jokes.

Okay. Sorry it’s all mirror-backwards, but look how hard it is to read a receipt in Hebrew and shekels!!! If it weren’t for the numbers, we would not even know it was backwards.

That receipt was from a group dinner. Don’t worry. We didn’t spend anywhere near that much.

Ah! I can’t wait to go back someday.

P.S. I lost 3 pounds.

At the Dizengoff Center, a shopping mall exactly like you’d find in America, I found MY store. Yep. April is a cosmetics store.

Julie and I averaged about 9 miles a day, over 20,000 steps. We were sweat-soaked each day when we made it back to our hotel room. If you go for a week, you need to pack like 14 outfits, complete with 14 sets of underwear.

By the time the trip was over, I had definitely built up my endurance. I have been sure to get in at LEAST 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise everyday since we got back, so this trip was a grand success, in more ways than one!

Be sure to check out my last post on Tel Aviv to learn more about this bustling city!

Just can’t get enough Israel? I wrote a book about the whole experience, and you can click here to buy the book on Amazon.

The post Shopping and Shedding Pounds in Tel Aviv appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Mom and me at Kansas City International Airport

Last week Mom and I had to take an unexpected trip to Kansas. My aunt was in the hospital, in ICU. Mom and I were worried, so we trekked on out there.

I’m the arthritis lady that has to take a special trip to the doctor’s office so I can make it through an airplane and car trip. I have to schedule walks down the airplane aisle to keep my legs from going crippled.

Good news: My aunt DID get moved out of ICU, and we got to visit with her. Even in hard times, Aunt Linda’s sharp wit can save a dire situation. She’s funny when she tries to be. She’s even funny when she’s not trying to be. I hope I have that much grace when I’m in a situation like that.

Bad news: She has a long recovery ahead and will be in the hospital for a while yet, and she’s only in her 50s. Hospital stays are miserable.

Other good news: I got to see my cousin Amber, who I grew up playing with, so this was a big deal.

Mom, me, and Amber, taking a lunch break at Panera.

Other bad news: Amber’s back is maybe even more messed up than mine is. We have this family arthritis problem. We could have done without that part of the inheritance, Granny…

So Amber and I were both popping NSAIDs and muscle relaxers and spraying each other with BioFreeze. And by the way, we are still young. We are trying not to think about how much worse this could get!

Nothing was working too well. In fact, as annoying as it is, do you know what seems to help me the most??

Physical therapy exercises. I started them in 2010 when my chiropractor assigned me strengthening and stretching exercises, and I was hurting so much that I actually did them out of pure desperation.

I did them faithfully until I started feeling better. Ever since, I’ve had the hardest time getting back in the habit. I need my own personal physical therapist in my living room.

So I found this YouTube channel that is PERFECT. Actually, it’s more than a YouTube channel. It’s a whole website. I wrote all about it over at Monterey Premier. Check it out here.

“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”   –Jesus, in John 16:33

The post Top Back Pain Tip from the Arthritis Lady appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

****This post does contain affiliate links.******

I received a Fitbit for Christmas. I have been wearing my Fitbit Charge II a month now, and I’m obsessed. I love this thing. I sleep with it, I check it 50 times a day, and by the way, I now always know what time it is. Plus, I see my text messages faster.

I wrote a full review on all the neat-o things this technology can do, over at Monterey Premier.

Here’s a snippet:

12. It provides COMPETITION.

You can “friend” people, and it tells you how many steps they walked. Just don’t friend my pal Erika because she logs in like 14,000 steps/day, and it just feels so impossible to beat her!! And she’s a dentist. I gotta figure out how she’s racking up so many steps.

13. It will give you a nudge to go walk…..

Click here to check out the rest! I’m disabling comments here in order to allow you to give Monterey Premier’s page some comment love.

Psst!! I am still sending out newsletters every 2 weeks. These are just short stories that don’t appear on the blog. One went out yesterday, and the one from 2 weeks ago had a spiritual gifts survey on it. Wish you hadn’t missed it? No problem. If you’d like to receive the link to the spiritual gifts survey, just join my bi-monthly newsletter below, and I’ll zip it right to ya.

The post What can a Fitbit Charge II do for you? appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

I was all excited to buy “Georgia peaches” now that I live down here, but look. These aren’t actually from Georgia. 🙁 Apparently, peach season is over already. I missed it!

This week I have two cardiology appointments. The one yesterday was fairly easy, and all went smoothly. John David, my faithful sidekick, tagged along for that one. I think he fully entertained the cardiac floor of the hospital. My favorite part was the bit he did with the crayons. See, I brought a brand new box of 24 crayons along. New crayons interest people more than old ones.

My sidekick…..He’s not distracting at all…But he can entertain a cardiology office like no other.

JD enjoyed the crayons very much, but I’m not sure that he actually did any coloring. The door to my appointment room had a large gap between it and the floor. John David found it delightfully fun to roll each of his crayons, one-by-one, under the door and out into the hallway. I stopped him at first, but then I was trying to give the doctor my full attention, so when he eventually resumed his game, I didn’t even notice really.

When I finally opened the door and fetched all the crayons, there were nurses giggling in the hallway. When I got onto the elevator, the elderly gentleman behind us said, “Well, we all know you had a good time at the doctor’s office,” to little John David. John David was wearing his Lightning McQueen back-pack, and he looked ridiculously adorable. He just looked up at all the people who kept talking to him with his little straight, serious face. This is definitely not the toddler you have to worry about running off with strangers.

I asked the man, “Oh, did you see the crayons rolling out into the hallway?”
“Oh, yeah,” the gentleman replied with a smile. “Is this your first?”
“Oh, no, my fourth.”
“What! Gracious! You don’t look old enough to have four! But then you don’t act like he’s your first. First time parents are, you know, different, more anxious and restrictive.”
Haaaa!!! Yep, true, and we’ve all been there.

So the heart problem lives on. I see my electrophysiologist today. It’s all sort of embarrassing when all of my health problems start coming out. Maybe I’ll just keep my mouth shut today about all the other non-heart symptoms that I have. I’m glad I didn’t yesterday though because that doc actually understood my hip problem and referred me to a local orthopedic surgeon, but don’t worry, I’m not hoping to have surgery.

What I actually want to tell you all is what a difference eating better has made for me. You know that whole, “You are what you eat?” slogan?? Well, it’s true. I hate it, but it’s true. The last few days, I’ve just re-embraced the fact that I need LOTS of sleep, and I can’t handle wheat, and I feel like a living human again, instead of a dying one, like I felt the last week.

Out for a walk with my work-out partner, JD

See, moving to the South from California was exciting and also bad, or really just I was the one that was bad. I wanted to eat buttermilk biscuits, fried chicken, and pie, pie pie!!!! I decided to pretend like I don’t have a problem with gluten for a while.

Until it caught up with me, and I was back in the hurt locker. So now I’m back to behaving, and I feel better. Eat better. Feel better.

I’ve been getting in more exercise too. I felt too poorly to do much of it last week. Who knew? Food, sleep, and exercise: three things I never realized would be so important for the rest of my life.

That’s why I’m such a fan of Justin Cox’s Kettle Bell Burn program. (You can check it out here.) He teaches the importance of a balanced diet, 8 hours of sleep per night, staying hydrated, 20 mins. of exercise per day, and taking vitamins.

I recently noticed that his current promotion is a free 5-day course on nutrition, so I just wanted to call your attention to that and urge you to sign up.

His regular exercise program is only $30/month, and it’s awesome, but if you’re still on the fence, the free 5-day course is a good starting place.

What, your gym doesn’t have a china cabinet?

When it comes to exercise, arm day is my favorite. I always actually do the whole work-out on arm day. You have to understand. I was never an athlete. I don’t even feel ashamed when I quit. I’m like, “Eh, this is heavy, or I’m out of breath. Time for a nice little rest.” No shame.

Case in point: Yesterday Caleb came into the kitchen asking Joshua to play ball with him. Joshua refused. Joshua was in the kitchen snacking. (Peas. Joshua eats whole cans of peas for a snack. We are baffled and pleased).

So I volunteered. Caleb kind of looked unsure, “Sigh. Okay, but I mean Mom can’t really catch or throw, but….Just so you know, Mom, there ARE bugs out here, and it is hot. I’ll get you a glove.”

(I complain about sweat, gnats, and bugs on the regular.)

9. Wow. It took my children only 9 years to surpass me in athletic skills. Nice. 

Now don’t be mad at Caleb. He was very sweet to me out there. He has played with me before, so he knows that half of my pitches will go over his head or five feet away from him, and I can’t throw very far. And I don’t really care. Sports are not my thing.

My sons say that P.E. is their favorite class. Can you imagine??? Well, I certainly can’t. I even found a way in high school to not have to take any P.E. at all. 🙂

Nutrition and exercise suddenly became so important to me after it actually turned my illness around. I was the queen of having two granola bars and a Coke for lunch, so this epiphany that if you want to feel good, you have to eat good was a truly rude awakening. (Yes, I know that’s bad grammar, but it’s catchy, you see. Eat good, feel good……Eat well, feel well doesn’t have the same ring to me, but we could also use that.)

I want you all to feel better too.

info graph/ affiliate link property of kbburn.com.

Let me know if you decide to give kbburn.com a try, so we can cheer each other on.

Eat better. Feel better.

The post Eat Better, Feel Better appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

I reached a low point the other day. I was standing in the Wednesday night supper line at church with my two smallest boys, and I had what could only be described as some sort of hypoglycemic brain shut down. As in, my brain stopped functioning for a solid 2 minutes.

It was embarrassing. I know those women in the supper line will probably always think I’m bonkers now.

John David and Daniel were standing beside me, clinking their trays together and saying things that they wanted in their high-pitched little boy voices. Meanwhile, the two ladies working the cafeteria line were asking me questions. Only I didn’t understand the questions. I could hear them just fine, but my brain quit on me. I tried to answer them. It went something like this:

JD and Dan: Eeebedebedoobed Mmbedeebebebededeeeeee…

Ladies serving: Which one? How many? Do you? This? That? Do you want rice? Do you want vegetables?

But mostly they just looked at me as if they were waiting on me to say something.

And I couldn’t. I wanted to, but I didn’t understand what the question was. I tried to talk, but I had trouble.

Me: Um….uh…yes.  No? Three? I’m sorry. I’m having trouble. I’m having trouble.  I have these two little boys here, and I…I….I

“I don’t understand what I’m supposed to be telling you!” I thought, but I couldn’t figure out how to say it…

Me: “Um..  Standard? Two? I’m sorry. I’m just having trouble. Okay (Things started to get better inside my head). Just put rice and a roll on that one. Um…..K..

I know this went on for only a minute or two, but it felt like 10. I was actually worried if I was going to be able to pull it together enough to make it to my table. I was so embarrassed.

I stared at my tray. Somehow, I’d ended up with one pork chop with gravy, a ton of rice, a helping of squash, and a bowl with four grapes in it.

I was extremely nauseous. Before all of this, between the time I picked the boys up from school at 3pm and the time I took them to dinner at 5, I’d eaten one bowl of ice cream with chocolate syrup and a couple of handfuls of an unusually sugary trail mix.

I strongly felt like the sugar was to blame. I decided to only eat my pork chop and nothing else for dinner. With each bite of that southern chop, smothered in gravy, my nausea improved. By the time I finished it, the nausea was gone, I wasn’t dizzy any more, and I could speak perfectly clearly.

Add that to the return of my ventricular tachycardia symptoms, and it was a major wake-up call for me. I’ve got to get back to taking better care of myself. Do any of you struggle with this stuff? Surely I can’t be the only one.

So here’s my plan:

#1. Cut out the sugar.

It makes me feel sick. Why am I eating the nasty mess? I know. I’ve said this before, but this time I have a healthier living support group:

My daily workout regimen and yes, there’s even a Facebook group.

#2. Continue my return to exercise.  kbburn.com baby!

#3. Drink more water. 

Remember how well I did on the water challenge last year?

Baby steps. Start where you are. I do girl push-ups. One day I’ll graduate to the harder version.

Let me tell you about my exciting return to exercise. I have done 5 or 6 of these work-outs now, and I am all about it. The program is kbburn.com. What I love about it is that it’s only 20 minutes a day.

There are two levels of membership:

Premium: full personal trainer services, weight loss program tailored to your needs, and membership to the Facebook community complete with educational videos. I tried this out last summer, and it was fantastic. However, I didn’t have the health scare going on yet to make me stick with it. Now I do. This is an awesome way to go if you are ready to get serious about being healthy.

Basic: $30/month You get daily work-out videos in your email and you belong to the Facebook group. This is the service I’m trying out now.

With both options, there are educational videos galore on how to implement living healthier with nutrition, exercise, sleep, water, and taking care of yourself.

He also has lots of recipes you can download.

Here’s a link to one of his lessons.

I would love it if some of you joined the group with me. We can hold each other accountable. I love the idea of losing weight, but really my goal is simply to not have any more hypoglycemic episodes like the one I described above! We can encourage each other.

P.S. It’s been two weeks, and I’m already out of my “fat pants”! Yes way!

Click here to learn more about it or sign up for the free trial. *And yes, this is an affiliate link, which means I do get paid for signing people up. That’s an extra blogger perk. Blogger friends, be sure to sign up for that too!*

If I can do it, with all my geriatric problems, you can do it too. Wishing you all a fun and ACTIVE weekend! If you do sign up, let me know so we can cheer each other on!

Click on the bird above to learn more or sign up!

The post A Scary Wake-Up Call and My 3 Part Plan to Return to Health appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Vacation in Boston, Summer 2012, Pain level was way down. Such a fun time!

To read Part I Click here. Again, this is a chronic pain post: feel free to skip this one if it’s not your cup of tea. I promise to not always blog about hip pain y’all…

Now onto Part II of the saga.

So where did we leave off? Oh, yes. I was lying on my bed, probably on a hot pad, staring at the ceiling, praying, and crying.

I prayed for help. It came. God has always been so faithful.

The doorbell rang.

“I’ll just pretend I’m not home,” I thought.

“Mom! Mom! Mom! Someone’s at the door!!!  Mom!! Get up! The doorbell!”

Groan. Obviously, we are at home.

“I’m coming. Okay.” I hobbled down the stairs, keeping my arm tucked in close. I answered the door. Just a nice lady needing to ask me a few questions. I don’t even remember her name.

I apologized for taking so long to answer the door. I explained that I’d been having trouble with my back. (It’s just much quicker than saying hip and shoulder.)

And do you know what she did?? She said she could relate! And then she pulled out her phone, and she said, “I have this chiropractor, his name is Dr. Bodnar. Let me give you his number.”

She assured me he was the best, and then she left. I never saw her before that day, and I never saw her afterwards.

I had only been to a chiropractor one other time, way back in 2005, when I was 8 months pregnant and also desperate for help with the hip.

I called the chiropractor. They got me in the very next day. Take that, physical therapy clinic! They were thorough. As my Granny, a fellow pain sufferer, once said, “They measured every bone in my body.” They also took x-rays.

One visit. One visit was all it took to fix the rib-cage thing. He just crunched my back, and bam! that rib went back to where it belonged. The truly fantabulous part is: It never came back!! Phew!

My neck was also repaired quickly. In only a few appointments, I could back up my car with a clear conscience. Wahoo!

Even the hip and shoulder tapered down to a manageable level. I was sold. I didn’t even bother to go back to the doctor who did the x-rays at my regular clinic. These chiropractor people were helping me, so I’d stick with them. No, my insurance didn’t pay for it, but I was breathing, walking, and sitting! Things were looking up!

They explained to me that my neck was straight rather than curved as it should be, and one side of my pelvis is higher than the other.

That’s when I also began to exercise. Dr. Bodnar gave me a few basic stretches and elbow planks to strengthen my core.

Y’all! When I began to do elbow planks in 2012, I couldn’t hold it for more than 3 seconds! It was so sad!! Now I can do 3 sets of 30 seconds a piece, in a row! I have come so far. At that time, the weak core explanation for my pain was something I could settle for. It was true back then. Not so, these days.

The exercise phase.

I lost 15 pounds. I ran. I swam. I was feeling great.

“Hey! Let’s have another baby!” You know I love babies.

But the truth had sunk in by this point that my hip and shoulder were chronic. This is a pain I will be “managing” for the rest of my life. Sometimes, even with the chiropractic care, my hip would flare up for a few days and then calm back down. The shoulder is more of a steady pinch, but I mostly only notice it when I’m lying down or sitting.

I call it sciatica, a hip problem, or a rear end problem. I know it’s confusing. The thing is that when it’s flared up, it hurts to drive, sit, lay down, or climb stairs. When I touch my foot to the pedals of a car, it hurts in my rear end and lower back, just to the right of my spine and deep into my rear.

But then there’s another aspect beside the sacroiliac pain.  The hip joint itself is also angry, so if the flare up gets bad enough, I have trouble walking. Maybe it’s all part of the same thing, but that’s why I keep saying I don’t know what I have, I just know it hurts.

So I was careful about the fourth pregnancy. I faithfully visited Dr. Bodnar every other week. It was my healthiest pregnancy of all four. The pain still came and went, but no horror stories. It was super mild. The worst problem I had was pregnancy anemia and women in grocery stores asking me if I was sure I wasn’t having twins!

Rudest thing ever people. Just tell pregnant women, “You look great.”

That pregnancy agreed with me.

During that pregnancy, I also finally made it to a dermatologist for several things. I’m supposed to go every year, but I don’t. That was when I learned that I had psoriasis. Phew! What a relief! I was afraid that crazy nail was fungus or something, and oh the public disgrace! But no, just psoriasis. No biggie. I’d had the scalp and nose rash for as long as I could remember, but I’d never bothered to find out what it was. It’s not big or very noticeable, so I don’t worry about it.

From 2012 to Fall 2014, the shoulder and hip would wax and wane in intensity, but it mostly stayed mild and manageable. We moved across country, and I made it–all of that car riding!–with no problem. Those were two happy, fit years, even with the c-section thrown in. I was quick to recover. I worked hard to get my ab muscles back in tact, thanks to my Lindsey Brin fitness DVDs and my yoga instructor, Monica.

But then came the 2014 move. I was good the first few months, but as I began to home school the boys, I could not find time to exercise. Plus, I was so tense and stressed. My old pain came back knocking hard.

Such a beautiful place to move to! Who wouldn’t want to live near the coast of California?

I found a local chiropractor. That helped. Then I went on Christmas vacation. I had a truly happy outlook. For some reason, that seems to make a difference. I had a fun time in Alabama, and when we came back I had my very first 4 completely pain-free months since 2011! I was ecstatic. I’d thought that ache was just part of me. But it disappeared for four whole months!! Wahooooooo!

While the shoulder ache and the hip pain evaporated, a new pain showed up around Fall 2014. Remember the white pinky nail I mentioned in Part I? Well, eventually every single fingernail, save one or two, went white and yellow and pink on me. Toward the tip, it gets super thick and looks like it’s separating from the nail bed. It’s embarrassing.

my fingernail psoriasis: a surprisingly obnoxious condition. This is also called onycholysis.

Also, it hurts. That was when I learned to wash my hair with only whatever one or two fingers was working properly. It wasn’t like the arthritis fingers, where they have swelling in their knuckles. It was just the tips of my fingers that hurt. I still have it in my thumb.

I learned to not even attempt buttons or jars. At least I could walk. Four whole months of no shoulder or hip pain! 2015 was off to a smashing start! I was happy. Home school was going better. I was finally making friends, and suddenly I had offers to make money blogging.

Life was looking up for April. I even began to tell myself that perhaps the shoulder and hip thing was truly over. I even took on a sponsored post with a personal trainer who put me on this Water Challenge that totally fixed most of my nails:

If you look closely, you can still see it in my index finger, but look at my happy, healthy thumb nail! All from drinking tons of water. Thank you, Coach Cox!

We’ll talk about Part III next time: The pain came back, and I finally met a health care professional who questioned my spine theory.

Read Part I here.

Read Part III here.

The post My Battle With Chronic Pain Part II: Tendonitis, Sacroiliac Pain, Muscle Strain, Whatever appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

You couldn’t find a more scenic route!

I thought it was so exciting to participate in such a huge event! People come from all around the world to run in the Big Sur Marathon. But did you know? There’s also a half marathon, a 5K, and a 3K, that are all a part of it.

Silly me. I volunteered to go at Daniel’s pace, so rest assured, there was no running for me.

Truly a pleasure to run with you, Dan.

So why am I still so gosh darn proud of the Dan Man? Well, most of the 4-year-olds there were riding in strollers for a while, walking a bit, riding in strollers, walking a bit, and so on. Not Dan. I only brought the single jogger, and the two-year-old lays a solid claim to that. Therefore, Dan ran and walked, and occasionally sat down in the middle of the road and said, “I can’t go on!” through the whole thing.

But he did! He did go on. He even beat one other 4-year-old. That’s right. It took us 45 minutes. Ha!

The big boys beat us by, I don’t know, a lot. See how well they warmed up:

We even brought along one of their friends, which drove the fun factor even higher.

See the Big Sur International Marathon signs behind us?

warming up

Oh, and there you have it, the new hair cut. Whoops! Didn’t really mean to chop off quite that much, but it is only hair, right?

Now, onto the next race….

The post Daniel’s First Race: The Big Sur Marathon Kids’ 3K appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.