STATUS : PASS

For all of those waiting on the edge of their seats for this update...I PASSED the ACE Personal Training Exam today. This is the one I FAILED earlier this year. Womp womp. I probably wouldn't have been able to do it without the help of my Aunt Wendy and Nicole who also took the Exam today and passed :) We all had taken the training class at AACC which prepared us to take the test today ...there were late nights and early mornings filled with studying, donuts, and bottle after bottle of wine. And even though it is over...my brain is still on information overload. 

I came home after my test to see my little man cheering me on...looks like he's already practicing his weird mommy faces.

And my big man came home with flowers <3 Jeremy and Camden are the best.

This past weekend we went to our friends' house for their annual Christmas party. Camden got to play with all of his friends and mommy and daddy got to play with theirs :)

At this Christmas party we always play the White Elephant gift exchange and every year Jeremy and I try to give funnier gifts than the year before. This year we made out with the gifts that we got to go home with. I ended up with an "I am TPAIN" record-able microphone and Jeremy got a big bottle of tequila. HELLO DATE NIGHT.

We have done some updating in the house to Jeremy's man cave....now it's a man/boy cave. Camden has a nice place to play and Jeremy can still watch Camden from his sports bar. Now we will have room for whatever new toys Camden will get for Christmas.

Speaking of, we are finishing up getting the house ready for Christmas. 6 days...EEK!!!! Our stockings have been hung by the chimney with Jeremy's care and tonight was gift wrapping night.

Jeremy and I have decided this year to not really give each other gifts. There's nothing at this point we NEED, and honestly, this little guy is the best gift ever...what more could we want? 

Happy 6 Months!!

Camden turned the big 6 months last Thursday! Today we went for the 6 month check up.

He obviously wasn't a big fan of the shots....THREE needles this time :(....but he still did great. He even found his new favorite thing...the paper on the table. Christmas time is going to be fun!

Nothing really new to report with Camden...except that he has learned to scream....for no reason. He must get that from his mom. Someone has to be loud and the center of attention...I totally understand. AND if that's the worst thing he's going to do now, I'll take it.

We had a nice weekend with friends. Camden had his first sleepover with his friend David who is 7 months. Trying to teach Camden to share is going to be fun. He wanted every single toy that David had and had no problem taking them from him. Oh boy....!

I have finally finished up my personal training class at the college. If I did my calculations correctly, I got an A in the class. Whoop whoop! Aunt Wendy, Nicole and I have all signed up to take the national ACE exam on the 19th...next Monday. EEK. This is the test that actually matters, the one that I received a (STATUS : FAIL) on the first time I took it. Good news is that I already feel so much more prepared than before :) Keeping my fingers crossed.

TAG

We've been playing a not-so-fun game of Tag in the Floyd household. This game of Tag is also known as "pass the cold." Right now everyone seems to be getting over it, but if we're going to continue to play, it looks like I would be next one to be IT. Womp Womp. It probably doesn't help that I am still constantly eating Camdens' hands, or kissing his cheeks, or licking his head. I don't know how to keep my mouth to myself when this baby is around!

Even though Camden is sick, you would never know, unless you hear him cough or if you get stuck sucking out his nose. Yes, you heard me right. He is still extremely playful and he sleeps great through the night....he handles a cold better than Jeremy and I do!

Peek-a-boo Camden, we seee you!!

He is also my little errand buddy. If you get him after a nap and a feeding, he is pleasant to take everywhere. No one likes a cranky baby and everyone loves Camden. No matter where we go, we always get caught up because we end up chatting with someone new. Old ladies love him! It must be that toothless smile they're after.

We have put up all of our decorations for Christmas....and although it doesn't feel like Christmas time, it's beginning to look a lot like it in our house!

Mimi gave Camden a special ornament that is his that he can look forward to putting on the tree each year. We helped him get the tradition started :)

Mommy and Daddy got their own special ornaments this year too!

Ta-da!







So Thankful

Thanksgiving is a time when we seem to reflect back on what is most important to us and what we are most thankful for. It is easy to make a list of the things near and dear to us that we wouldn't and couldn't live without. I challenge you to find something about every day that you are thankful for...even if it is as simple as waking up that morning. It makes the day so much more pleasant. I promise.

I have begun making it a point to be more thankful overall. Whether it is telling Jeremy "I love you" more than I normally would in a day, or if it is hugging Camden a little tighter each night, or even if it is just thanking God for the beautiful weather we are having. Whatever it may be, there really is so much to be thankful for. I truly feel blessed everyday.

Today I am extra thankful that we get to share this day with our wonderful family who has traveled many hours just to spend the holiday with us. I am thankful for the friends that have helped me to become the person I am today. I am thankful for my dog, who may be fat and smelly, but absolutely adorable. I am thankful for my amazing husband, who loves me no matter what. I am thankful for my healthy and happy son who, at this moment, loves his vegetables. I am very thankful for my relationship with God because I believe without him, none of the above would be possible.

Thank you.

When I grow up

I found a piece of paper in my baby book that said..."When I grow up I want to be a teacher, or a doctor" and when I was 3ish I told my parents I want to be a pig. Oink Oink. Good news is that I didn't grow up to be a pig and I know I will never be smart enough to be a doctor. I mean, could you image this face walking into your hospital room to talk to you about your ailments?

What I have become is a teacher, although probably not the type I imagined I would be as a little kid. While I am currently teaching gymnastics to little kids, being a teacher to my son is the job I take the most pride in. 

I think that some people know from a young age what they want to be when they grow up. They go to school with a plan and put their careers first. I, on the other hand, didn't have that plan. I had ideas of things that would be cool to do, things I enjoyed doing, but what I really enjoyed the most was family. 

It wasn't until I started dating Jeremy that I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted to be a wife and a mother. Education was important to me, but a job wasn't. I knew I would always be able to find some sort of job...even if it wasn't exactly what I wanted to do...because having a happy family was my priority.

I am extremely blessed. I am working part-time teaching gymnastics. I work about 6 miles from our house. I get to spend M-W at home with my son. I mean, who wouldn't want to spend a few days a week hanging out with this handsome fellow!

I always thought I would be the type of mom who went back to work a 9-5 Monday - Friday job. I thought this because I loved working. I got so much joy out of working as part of a team and being able to significantly contribute to our family financially. Boy how things have changed. I have the luxury of only working 2.5 days a week but if we could afford it, I wouldn't work outside of this house a single day. If you were to ask me 5 months ago if I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom...the answer would have been, "No way!" Now, I honestly would give anything now to stay-at-home everyday with Camden, not because I don't like my job, but because I just totally love my son.

On Sunday we had Camden's Dedication at our Church. It was a wonderful ceremony with our family. I know Camden doesn't understand yet how blessed he is, but one day he will.

Last but not least, today Camden is 5 months old. Happy Birthday Big Boy Camden! <3 I look forward to teaching you everything I know...like how to Oink like a pig and not be a doctor. 

Hairy, Scary....Monster!!

For Camden's first Halloween he was a scary monster....or quite possibly the cutest monster ever.

We went trick-or-treating around the neighborhood with our friends and their son. The weather ended up being really nice and everyone seemed to have a good time...runny nose and all.

Jeremy was in charge of Camden's candy bag and I'm saddened to report he did an awful job. Good thing we had left-over candy or mommy wouldn't have had anything to eat these past few days!

Earlier in the day we went over to play with Grammy and we wore our Halloween outfit. Even though he was a little under the weather with a runny nose (he can thank mommy for that...) he seemed to have a great day. Happy Halloween! (I even dyed his hair red so he could have a pumpkin head to match his bib and butt)

Last week when Mimi and Poppy were in town they bought Camden a chicken costume in case we weren't prepared for Halloween. After a little hesitation on the part of Jeremy, we got Camden in the costume so of course we had to take some pictures :) I personally think the outfit shows off his huge muscles very nicely. Some would call that baby fat, but mommy likes to refer to it as muscle.

I mentioned earlier that Camden has a runny nose. I know he unfortunately got that from me. Mommy has been working with a cold for the past week now. Although I ended up feeling excellent on Sunday, I missed the 5k that I had signed up for to be on the safe side, which was probably a good idea because it was super cold in the morning. I was convinced that my home remedy of gargling, throat drops, and hot tea with honey was the way to go.

By Monday afternoon I was in serious pain. I don't remember the last time that my throat had hurt that bad. It hurt to touch, it hurt to swallow and it almost heart to breathe. Nothing that had worked previously was working this time. I went to the doctor's on Tuesday and was cleared of strep...thank goodness. I like to think I have a very high pain tolerance and I lasted a long time trying to fix this cold on my own. Tuesday afternoon I gave into the ibuprofen.

Cold and flu season - 1...Jackie - 0

So mad that I've been sick this past week because I haven't been able to run and try out my new kicks :)



I better be up and running (literally and figuratively) soon. We have a lot going on this weekend and family coming into town! Camden is so excited to finally meet his Aunt Randee and Uncle Brandon!!!

Num Nums!

We are a little over a week into rice cereal. Proud to report that Camden is loving it! Looking forward to adding some vegetables into his diet soon...not sure it will go over as well as the cereal :)

"What is this?? This isn't my bottle!"

"This is supposed to go IN my mouth?"

"Okay...That wasn't sooo bad"

"Let me handle this, mom"

"Where's that spoon??? I want MORE"

"Okay, that was goood!!"

"All done!"

"Why won't anyone feed me??"

**The quotations are actual quotes taken during the feeding**

Running, Inspired by Running!

So I did it, I ran my first half marathon! It might not have been pretty, but I successfully completed it.

Success meaning I crossed the finish line. I had no expectations for myself except that I wanted to finish. I didn’t care if it was on my hands on knees, I just wanted to do it….and I did….a solid 3 hours and 6 minutes later.

Thinking about running for 3 hours seems awful, and at times it was. I had heard that the course was pretty hilly so I was running hills as part of my “training” or half-assed training as I like to call it. I ran 6 hilly miles the weekend before to prepare. That was the most I had ever run at one time and it was only the 3^rd time in my life I had ran 6 miles. Was I in over my head? Possibly. Could I have trained more to prepare? Absolutely. But when I say I’m going to do something I do it, no matter how hard it may be or how ugly it may end up.

I knew a handful of people running the half marathon, and luckily I ran into them all! We met up with Tom and Mike in the parking lot before hand, I saw my old roommate from college Devon and her sister right by the start, and thankfully I also ran into my HS friend Kelly and her friend Davia right around the same time. I was able to cross the start with all of my lady friends!

I started running with Davia, who had the same goal as I did; finish. She had actually only run 6 miles prior to this race as well. We were meant for each other.  Running through the streets of Baltimore was cool and weird at the same time. I felt so little running past those big buildings. It almost felt like the buildings were going to devour me. It was a strange feeling. Luckily we were blessed with such a beautiful day. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect!

If it wasn’t for Davia, I really don’t think I would have made it to the end in the amount of time I did. She got me through the first 7 miles, which were the toughest and hilliest. She was there when I needed the mental motivation. I did not bring headphones to run with, so having someone there with me was extremely important. I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t run into her before the race started.

She left me at mile 7 because she wanted to run faster, or something ridiculous. A 12-14 minute mile wasn’t fast enough for you Davia?! Ha. Just kidding. I’m glad she was able to go on at a faster pace. I was perfectly content with the pace I was running, or as Jeremy likes to call it, walking. I knew if I pushed any harder or faster I wouldn’t make it. At this point my body was not trained to go any faster.

Around mile 9 I lost it. Up until that point I had felt pretty good about the race. Endurance wise I felt fine, but it was around this time that I started really feeling the pain in my knees and hips. I had walked at all of the water stops to hydrate myself, but at mile 9 I felt the need to stop. Once I started walking the pain in my hips and knees became worse. It was at this point that I thought about walking the rest of the way. Then I thought about how much longer it would have taken me to walk those remaining 4 miles…I did not want to be on the streets of BMORE for that long.

So I got myself together and I picked up the pace. It actually felt better to jog than it did to walk. So there I was, in order to not be in so much pain I had to jog. Davia helped me mentally get through the first 7 miles. Here I was, relying on only myself to get through these next 4 miles physically.

It got louder and louder the closer I got to the finish. Even if there hadn’t been mile makers I would have been able to sense the finish coming. There were more people, more cheering, more signs, and more noise. It was wonderful. With one mile to go I was overcome with serious emotion and I wasn’t sure where it was coming from. I wasn’t sure if I was just so happy with myself that I had gotten so far, or if I was in so much pain that I was just happy to be done. I may never remember exactly what I was feeling in those moments. All I know is that as I was finishing the last mile by the warehouse and Camden Yards I was looking forward to holding MY Camden in my arms. As I passed by the stadium I heard my name being chanted. There they were, my two favorite boys and my two biggest fans waiting close to the finish line cheering me on with my sisters. While I saw them and quickly acknowledged that they were there, I couldn’t make eye contact or I would have cried. At that point I was physically, emotionally, and mentally tired.

I didn’t care what my time was as I crossed the finish. That was the furthest thing from my mind. I was proud of myself for crossing that finish line and not having to do so on my hands and knees.

The way I felt physically after the race was worse than I felt after giving birth to Camden. My hips and knees hurt so bad after the half that I was convinced that my hips were made for having babies and not running. I guess I had “trained” for 9 months to have a baby and I only half-ass trained for this half marathon for a couple of months. My body was worn out. In those moments I said I would never run a half again. Two days later I am still in pain, but it is bearable, and thoughts of running another half are crossing my mind, only this time I’m thinking that I would train a little bit better before running that kind of distance again.

It is safe to say that I would never run a full marathon. My knees, hips, and head hurt from just thinking about running longer than 3 hours. Plus, even though they’re not the prettiest things in the world, I like having toes with toenails too much to run a full.

All in all I’m happy to say I did it. I’m proud of myself for sticking with it even when I felt like giving up.

Slow and steady wins the race, and in my book, I won.