Monday, October 8, 2012

Fun, Fundraising and Freaking Exhausted.

Going in to this weekend I was exhausted. The cold that hit me on Monday was holding strong well in to Friday and I was scared that I wasn't going to survive my weekend events and my voice was 95% gone with no sign of coming back.  

Here's what was on my schedule for the weekend:
Saturday 10a: 2 hour Zumbathon for Girls on the Run.
Saturday 4p: 2 hour Zumbatomic Birthday Party for Morgan and Makenzie.
Sunday 2:15p: 1 hour Zumbatomic class
Sunday 4:30p: 75 minute Zumba class at the YMCA.
That's about 6 hours of Zumba related work and Zumbatomic is the most exhausting specialty I currently teach.  Kids are hard.  They require twice as much energy and enthusiasm as a normal Zumba class.  I guess it's fair though because the reward is twice as big.  

Friday night I went to bed early after taking my 100th dose of Zicam, EmergenC, gargling with salt water, taking NyQuil and slathering myself up with VapoRub.  

It worked well enough, I suppose.  I almost had a full voice back when I got up Saturday and I was not feeling so much like death.  So on we went.

The Girls on the Run Zumbathon? AMAZING! Girls on the Run may have won me over and I may be considering volunteering with them.  I love their mission and the way they teach self acceptance, self love and honoring your body.  Ginger from GOTR did a little exercise with the girls at the Zumbathon that I really needed.  It involved a Positivity string and throwing away the Negativity strings that people try to force upon us. Then playing a game of "tag" with positive adjectives that when we had to freeze we had to attach to the people closest to us.  It was a beautiful exercise and I loved the messages.  They resonated with me.

Mostly?  The day was about fun and dancing and playing and we did!!!

Curl in like an amoeba!
Mrs. Fatass gives a lesson on Cumbia
An unplanned circle during a game of Freeze Dance!
The Monster Mash!!
Starting a game of Center Star
Positivity string meditation
It was a blast to get to play with the kids and to watch some of them just come right out of their shell and make new friends.  I miss that about being a kid.  How every new person you meet is a best friend you just haven't met yet.  It was uplifting and made me feel great.  Even though I was still wanting nothing more than to be in my bed with hot chocolate and a book.

After all was said and done I got home, got cleaned up and had lunch while psyching myself up for the birthday party.

And you know what?  The birthday party was AWESOME too.  The two girls we were hosting the party for were turning 7 and 11 and we wound up with a full hour of giggling and dancing.  Even some of the parents and grandparents got in on the action!!!!! It was so much fun and I loved that the kids got so in to the dancing piece of the day.  It was harder with the age span but we did it.

Then Sue and I spent the second hour helping out with the food and drink portion and cleaned up the studio. I was dead tired by the time we finished up.  Like... DEAD.

I spent the evening catching up on the DVR and eating pizza with Matt and Marshall.  It was the best way to end the day.

Sunday morning came far too quickly though. I slept in a little bit, but not much and then had to go grocery shopping.  Then I spent an hour separating meats in to single serve sizes so I could easily making up meals for the week.  Lots of yummy chicken and turkey sausages and veggies for lunch and quick dinners this week.  I also did some planning about breakfasts and snacks and everything is pretty much set to go.

Then it was onward to my normal Zumbatomic class.  I had 2 little girls and 2 older boys and it was a weird class BUT it was fun and everyone got sweaty and giggly.  It took a lot out of me.  It was a hard class due to the age difference.  A 4 and 5 year old and a 9 and 10 year old. OUCH!  It wound up being incredibly satisfying though.

My class at the YMCA was smaller than normal but it also wound up just feeling good.  I went with an all cardio, playful playlist.  There were lots of call backs to old favorites and some Halloween related fun routines.  It was great.  I felt so much better about 30 minutes in to class when the endorphin rush just rose up and hit me.  I love that crew so much.  No matter how tired I am they rock me!

Today I am working from home, on my day off, and about to go run some errands with Matt.

I am still a little high on the weekend.  Why?  Because I got two of the biggest compliments from Zumbatomic kids through their parents.

First one little girl, who has been to pretty much all of my classes, was told that she was going to do Zumba for a few hours Saturday morning by her mom and she said "I don't wanna do Zumba without Miss Sam." Dead. That hit me right in the heart place. WHAM!

Secondly, the little girl from class on Sunday.  Her mom posted this on my FaceBook last night:

 And then this this morning:
Yeah... I'm so won over by the love from the little ones.  They are so open and honest and live life so unapologetically. 

So much good stuff.  

I'm still freaking exhausted though. EXHAUSTED.  After this weird week and next weekends Sentao training I am fully prepared to be dead by the end of next week... when I turn 30! EEK! It's coming up so quickly! 

I can't wait to see what year 30 brings!

4 comments:

  1. Sam, it sounds like you had a fantastic week. I am so proud of you for reaching out to kids and teaching them to love their bodies and themselves just as they are. You are a great role model!

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  2. Thank you for bringing me along on your weekend! I feel so grateful to get to work with you. <3

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  3. I'm glad you had such an awesome week, and that you were able to dig deep and find the energy to give to the kids. Working with children in that age range can be effing. exhausting. You're right though, the rewards are totally worth it in the end.

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  4. I stalked you on FB.
    I LOVED YOUR LOVE OF IT ALL.

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