Sawyers-Specialties Blog

My friends all consider me to be “thin” and laugh at the idea of me going to a gym, I’ve always been one of the lucky ones that could eat anything I wanted and not gain an ounce… but here’s how it happened. Last year, our receptionist got pregnant with her first baby. It’s a small office and we’re all pretty close and she was constantly bringing in goodies.. of course, she’s eating for two, but as she put it “If I’m going to get fat, I’m taking you all with me.” We thought it was funny. That was around May.

My son graduated High School and the real rush to secure his apartment for college 1,000 miles away, find a roomate, obtain financing to pay for college and apartment and all the stress involved in the move and sending my son off into the unknown…. This was June to September…. In June, I turned 37. (My mother warned me that after I hit 35, that eat anything you want and don’t worry about it won’t last much longer).

Around September, my pants started getting tight and I was unbuttoning them during the day to be “more confortable”. My son left for college and we had a whirlwind drive over 2 days, moving into an apartment, getting furniture (some was purchased in advance to be delivered the day after we arrived, the rest from our staple Wal-Mart to be assembled under less than optimal conditions (pop-pop was wonderful enough to donate a toolbox with all the bare essentials for on-your-own living), and the hunt for an affordable used vehicle for my son to get around town in (and the sticker shock of car insurance in a major metropolitan area prone to strong storms and hurricanes vs rural PA where an occassional blizzard or large hail is the extent of our weather catastrophes. Our receptionist is still force feeding us sugary sweets and my pants are getting even tighter.

In December, our world fell apart with my step-father (aka pop-pop) was diagnosed with a very aggressive brain cancer and needed almost immediate surgery, followed by a complication of blood clots in his lungs that hospitalized him a second time just a week before Christmas (the nurses and doctors were fabulous in working together to be able to discharge him on Christmas morning so we could be together as a family).

Late April… I get up and get ready for work, only to discover that the pants I’ve been unbuttoning to be more comfortable in… don’t fit AT ALL!! It was quite a mad panic as I went through my entire drawer to find a pair of pants that I could force myself into. I step on the scale showed I’d gained a good 20 pounds. Considering that my normal weight was 112-115 pounds, this was a substantial jump for me. I’d never gone up more than 5 pounds while not pregnant ever.

In May, I got sucked into watching an infomercial. I was watching TLC which I love for the Flip This House and Property Ladder series (and now The Real Deal as well). Anyway, they were showing this cool little contraption called a Jump Snap. It’s the coolest little computerized jump rope… without the rope. Of course I bought one LOL. I mean, all us girls jumped rope as kids, it was great fun, we could do it for hours, what fun, I’ll jump rope and lose weight. WOW, things sure change when you get older. The Jump Snap worked exactly like they said it did, it came with a great little workout video with a couple of perky girls doing the beginning 8 minute workout. Phfft. Eight minutes I thought, I could do 8 minutes standing on my head surely….. Well, I gotta tell you, jumping rope at my age wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. The workout is broken down into 2 minutes sessions with water breaks. I won’t need water for just 8 minutes, how ridiculous…. ok, after two minutes, I’m gasping and heaving… pausing the video.. filling a water bottle to chug and I’m ready for the next 2 minutes….. they want us to do jumping jacks!! I think I’m going to die… pause video…. more water…. I made it almost 5 minutes on my first workout. Almost 6 on the second workout… 7 1/2 on the 3rd workout and on the 4th.. yeah for me, I made it through a whole 8 minutes. The Jump Snap itself will tell you exactly how long you’ve jumped and how many times you’ve jumped. So, I know when I’m tired and not jumping as many times as the workout before (I keep a spreadsheet of my progress… date, length of workout, and jumps… to keep myself committed and accountable for keeping up with a routine. I tried to keep up 4-5 times a week with the 8 minute program and was almost instantly gratified with losing an inch off my waist, and half an inch of my hips. I got back in to several of my pants that I couldn’t button just a few weeks earlier. Unfortunately, I’ve plateaued at point

In Late May, I had the opportunity to join a gym and a reduced rate for doing some freelance work for them. Now, while many people may not appreciate something that isn’t really costing them much, I’m taking as much advantage of it as I can, going to the gym 3-4 times a week for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. My routine is up to at least 5 miles on the stationary bike, “circuit” a series of 20 machines (I don’t do 2 of them because of previous back problems) that are designed for strengthening different groups of muscles, I’ve recently added at least 15 minutes (nearly 1 1/2 miles) on the cross trainer.. similar to a step machine or eliptical, and other 1 to 1 1/4 miles on the treadmill… I still haven’t dropped a pound, so it’s very discouraging, but the tell me it typically takes at least 3 months. I’m clinging to the fact that in just a month, I’ve more than doubled my workout stamina and my clothes are feeling better (I rarely unbutton my pants during the day now LOL). So, I’m entering a new phase of the.. watching everything I eat. I’m having a terrible time cutting out the snacking after years of.. don’t worry, you can eat it.. mentality, but, I’m getting there. Hopefully my friends will stop laughing at me soon (sigh).

As summer approaches quickly, we’re gearing up toward more home makeover projects. Our top priority will be our bathroom which we started last year but were waylayed when my husband suffered several bouts with large kidney stones which required medical assistance in breaking up, followed soon after by long overdue hernia surgery. Hopefully we’re back on track this year. Hopefully we still like the color we picked LOL.

To assist with your color selections, we’ve featured an article on color selection. You can find this in our Helpful Articles section under Decorating/Remodeling/Home Repairs

• Choosing Colors For Your Home
• Home Improvements – Little Things Can Mean A Lot will hopefully provide you with some ideas to freshen up a room inexpensively.

This year, my second child is now driving age. Even through we’ve gone through this teaching experience once, it’s still a process which requires a lot of planning and patience. The accident statistics for young drivers can be quite frightening as we send our new drivers out on the road, so it’s very important that we prepare them for the unexpected. A new article has been added to our safety section. Safety Tips For Teen Drivers.

Our state, Pennsylvania pass legislation several years ago requiring young drivers to use their permit for at least 6 months and drive a minimum of 50 hours under adult supervision. With our older son, I spent many hours driving around in circles at our local elementary school parking lot which was very well laid our for stop signs, left and right turns and smooth turns as well as parking. Living in a very rural area, it was also quite easy to drive for some time without encountering another vehicle (although little furry pedestrians abound). As we both felt more confident with the skills that were being learned, we graduated onto real roads and even Pennsylvania Turnpike driving to visit family on a weekly basis. We also had the luxury of allowing him to help drive on a family trip to Florida where he simply had to drive straight and watch for people merging and passing. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had more than 100 hours in by the time he felt ready to take his driver’s license test, (just 2 days before the permit expired).

We were fortunate enough to run into many unexpected learning experiences (some were actually frightening). We encountered an ambulance with lights and sirens behind us on a very narrow side street as we were at the intersection waiting to turn into traffic. That we a tough situation even for me as we tried to determine quickly if the ambulance could actually pass us where we sat or if we needed to make our the turn to clear the path for the ambulance (it ended up being the latter, we made our turn and immediately pulled to the shoulder).

In another instance, waiting to cross a very busy highway, we sat, waiting for traffic to clear when a car pulled up on the other side of the intersection and was waiting to turn across our path. The polite young woman at the wheel of the vehicle waved my son ahead and he immediately started to pull into the intersection, directly into the path of a speeding sports car (it was obvious he was going well over the 45 mph speed limit). I admit that I was not very calm and immediately started screaming for my son to stop (I actually called him by my husband’s name and flung my arm across the seat in that mom seat belt move even though we were both tightly belted). My son did stop in time, we did make it through the intersection safely a few moments later and we had a great opportunity to discuss what someone waving you out REALLY means (it means they’re letting you go ahead of them, but not necessary that they’re assuring it’s safe to proceed right then). I’m certainly glad this lesson wasn’t learned the hard way.

My friends laughed when I told them that Friday and Saturday driving lessons included watching for Yard Sale signs. Around here, that typically means that someone will slam on their brakes in front of you to
a) see where the sale is and if it’s on a street they’re just about to pass
b) the yard sale is directly beside them and they’d rather stop in the middle of the street before committing to actually pulling over to see if there is anything good
or c) people who’ve already stopped pull suddenly into traffic to quickly move to the next sale.

These rules also apply for the many farmer’s markets in our area where there have been several fatalities as drivers pull across into oncoming traffic at the sign of ripe watermelon and fresh corn.

Driving in our area is also a challenge of watching for deer crossing, duck crossing (across a main highway through the center of town square where a quaint park with spring and fountain are located and ducks find it quite restful to sleep in the middle of the street in front of the fire hall). Skunks present an interesting night time obstacle course (anyone who has ever hit one will know how desparately you NEVER want to do that again under any circumstance short of physical damage to yourself or your vehicle).

So, we’re looking forward to another interesting summer with son number 2 as he ventures into the realm of driving teenagers under parental supervision. He’s still studying for his permit, but the lessons have already begun as we talk about what we look for as a good defensive driver.

I hope you all have a safe and healthy summer season.