Amazing Moms Making a Difference

Being involved with Stroller Strides and the Luna Moms Club for over a year now, I have had the amazing privilege of getting to know some outstanding women. Women that have shared great parenting skills with me, been a shoulder to lean on, and made me laugh when I didn't know I had it in me! All of these women have become great friends too, and I am thankful everyday to have them in my life.

So I know I shouldn't be so overwhelmed with the generosity they showed me this Holiday season, but it was so immense that I am blown away! In a time where finances are tight, and everyone is scrounging just to make the holidays happen, the ladies of Stroller Strides in Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley dug deep and came together to provide a great Christmas for two families in need. We partnered with Colette's Children's Home here in Huntington Beach to sponsor families through their adopt a family program. The families are recent graduates of their program that help homeless single mothers and their children get a hand up, not a hand out, to help them get back on their feet.

Adopting two families was ambitious, and I thought we might be able to help just a little bit, but our Moms had something else in mind. These ladies came with gifts for a total of 6 people between the two families, including skateboards, clothes and toys. Moms also contributed food for a Holiday meal and something special for each of the moms we adopted. We ended up with 100's of dollars in gift cards, and I even had moms that have moved on from Stroller Strides mail me checks to help out! We were also able to provide each family with a gift card to Ralph's for groceries.

I was the lucky one who got to play Santa and deliver the gifts to the extremely thankful families. It was hard and overwhelming for both of them to be on the receiving end of such great kindness from strangers, and both expressed to me that they can't wait until they can be the ones giving. I have already received a letter of thanks from one of the families that I will be forwarding on to my members later today.

For all of you that contributed to this great cause, or even volunteered at the Christmas party, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. I know you all took out of your family budget to give to complete strangers, and I feel I cannot express my gratitude enough. You all amaze me on a daily basis, and I am so proud to know you all. I can't wait to see how wonderful all your children will turn out because of the great example you show them everyday.

Happy Holidays, and never underestimate the power of giving! I don't know any gift that can bring me the same satisfaction as I got seeing the look of the faces of these women as they were reminded there are people out there with hearts of gold, willing to help out those in need!

Setting an Example for my Daughter

I knew when I started my Stroller Strides franchise that I would be setting a great example for my daughter. She would see fitness and health as a way of life and see me making that a priority in my life. Being active would then automatically become a way of life for her as she grew older. I also thought that it would be wonderful for her to see her mother running her own business and being very successful doing that. My mother had her own business when I was growing up and I learned that it was possible to have it all, the family and career, and how to keep your entrepreneurial spirit through it all.

Now, for anyone that has been to my class, you know that my 20 month old daughter Meadow can count with the best of them. She can belt out 1-10, and on a good day can count it down from 8. She can tell the ladies to stay tight, let them know that they are done, and even cheer them on as they go running by. But this morning she brought a little tear to my eye as we were sitting in the living room. She started an exercise routine, with perfect form I might add, saying:" lunge, kick, lunge, kick, lunge 3,2,1 and up and down and up and down." I tried to get it on video but of course the moment had passed! Watching her little legs do lunges was too cute for words!

You always wonder if you will have a positive and encouraging affect on your child, and this my friends is a point in my favor!

Stroller Strides FV/HB Turns 1!!!!!!!

They say it takes 21 days to build a habit. My question is, how do you keep up for those 21 days?! I am so new to blogging that I just completely forget about it! So, I am basically apologizing to my family who has been bugging me to update my blog for the past few weeks! I got it!

I have been busy, what with my business turning 1 last week! I can't believe I not only made it through the first year, but I actually have my head above water. Time has truly flown by, and I have loved every minute! I am one of the lucky ones who gets to wake up every morning, and be excited about going to 'work'!

We celebrated the anniversary with a breakfast potluck at Carlee's house and had a great turnout. Way too much food of course but it was great to see everyone outside of class and not sweating! It's amazing how different people look without their sunglasses and hats! The kids had way too much fun in the backyard with all of Max's toys and we even managed to get them all together in a picture.

On a side note, I was nominated by a few of our moms for Stroller Strides Instructor of the Year. I was extremely flattered, and decided to fill out the official application and put myself in the running. I just heard that unfortunately I was not chosen as one of the three finalists. It was what I was expecting so I wasn't surprised. What did catch me off guard were all of the comments I received from the moms that nominated me. It was the icing on the cake for me as an end to my first year in business. I was brought to tears by all of the amazing things they had to say about the class, and also blown away by the amount of people that nominated me. I know that I am so excited to see all of our moms every morning, and it's nice to know they feel the same! A big thank you to all of you that nominated me, and thank you for making this all worthwhile!

It's Official

Well, it's official...I'm pregnant. Of course I have known this for a few weeks now after my at home pregnancy test but now it has hit me big time. And no, this is not coming after my first doctor's appointment which was on Monday. The whole family and I made the trek down to Laguna Hills only to be rescheduled due to emergency c-sections my Dr. had to perform. So now I am pushed back to September 11th.

No, I say I am now officially pregnant because the morning(I mean all day) sickness has set in. I don't know why, but I thought that this time would be easier than the first since I wasn't working a full time job with crazy hours. I figured I would be able to take great care of myself and eat when I needed to and get plenty of rest. Who was I kidding...my full time job was much easier than keeping up with an 18 month old, not to mention having to cook and clean for the family! My husband keeps telling me that I just need to buck up...oh if it were only that easy! I would like to use that phrase back on him except I would change a few of the letters!

The funny thing is that I thought the hardest part of being pregnant the second time around would be teaching my Stroller Strides classes while feeling so sick. Especially the 5K training runs in the heat of the late afternoon. In all honesty these are my best times of the day. I feel great when I am working out...go figure! I think I need to research the crazy hormones released during exercise that combat nausea and find some way to bottle it!

Disneyland 5K Here We Come!

Well, I was so excited when I started my Blog page, ummmm, almost a month ago, but when I sat down I was so confused about where to begin. Do I need to write an entire background story on myself? Does everyone need to know where I was born and what traumatic experiences I had at age 5? Will it be obvious when I am trying to be witty? All the pressure caused me to put it off day after day and tonight I put my foot down. I am just going to jump on in right where I am at right now, feel free to fill in some exotic background story for me on your own, I know it will be more interesting than the truth!

I have the great pleasure of owning my own Stroller Strides franchise, which I love, and on top of that I mix in some other training classes to keep things interesting. A few weeks back I started a 5K training program for beginner runners to train for the Disneyland 5K. I figured this would be an easy sell because how motivating is it to have Mickey Mouse cheering you on?! The race is on Saturday August 30th, and we run all though Disneyland and California Adventure. There are 10 of us total taking the plunge, although that number might be less on race day! I think everyone is really excited, and a bit anxious, not really sure what to expect for their first real race.

We have been slowly, and I mean slowly, building up over the past 6 weeks starting with running for only 60 seconds at a time, to running 3 miles this week. It seemed too slow in the beginning, especially to those of us who can still remember the days when running didn't hurt, and you weren't out of breath after 90 seconds! But we are all thankful now that we took the time to build up our base. Too often people get discouraged when they start a running program because you push yourself too hard, possibly to the point of injury, and definitely past the point of enjoyment.

Yes, enjoyment! Running is supposed to be fun! We were lucky enough to have the manager of A Snail's Pace Running Shop out to give us a shoe clinic a few weeks back and he reminded us all of something so important. Running, and any exercise for that matter, is supposed to relieve stress, not create stress. We need to give ourselves a break and just enjoy our exercise for a change. Forget about how fast you are going, or how many calories you are burning, just be proud of yourself for getting out there.

Well, I guess my first post is out of the way. I can only go up from here, right?

Angela