Month of Thanks - Day #9 & 10

I have started teaching Zumba with another cute girl in my Stake.  Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 5:30 in the morning, we meet with anywhere from 5-15 ladies and shake what we got.  I am grateful that these ladies come, because it gets me up and going in the morning.

We aren't amazingly talented.  Everybody moves at their own pace and in their own way.  But we are all moving.  There are women in there with arthritis.  There are women in their with sports injuries.  But they do it.  These women are incredible examples to me.

You see, when Todd got laid off, it just so happened to be at the same time my gym membership was running out.  The gym had become my happy place.  I loved the instructors, the people in the classes, loved that my kids got to go to the daycare and have a great time with other friends and escape from me for a while.  I was going to miss that so much.  I needed something to keep me motivated to keep moving my body.

A friend in my ward invited me to Zumba with her, but it was quite a drive away.  It inspired me!  I had been doing Zumba for a year, I could probably teach the dances I had learned and maybe other ladies in my neighborhood would want to learn them too and then if I was the teacher I would have to be at the church to teach them, and then I wouldn't just give up!  Surprisingly, ladies came and a cute girl (Karen) offered to help teach too!!!  It's been wonderful!

I am so grateful for this body.  Grateful that I can move every single one of my joints.  I am grateful that my body has been so good to me.  I have never had to be hospitalized with anything major.  What a blessing!

So, as a way of saying thanks to my body, I will keep doing Zumba.  I will try to run a little more...it's good for my heart.  I will eat more fruits and veggies.

Funny story:
I was wearing my stretchy pants one morning, and before I left the house I had a feeling I should grab a long sleeved shirt to wear over my tank top. So I quickly grabbed it an left the house.  Of course, it gets rather hot when you are wiggling your hips so much, so I took off the shirt and put it on the stage.  Halfway through the dance, I think "I should probably tie that shirt around my waist.  These pants are really tight and these ladies might not want to see so much shaking going on back there."  So I grabbed the shirt and tied it around my waist.  The next song, I did a squat and heard a little tear.  I didn't think much of it til I got home and realized that I had split the seam in the back of the pants.  Good thing I listened to that little voice and wore a shirt around my waist or the ladies would have gotten quite a show that morning!