I really need to update more.

I have been gyming more so thats a good thing.  I have been doing lots of Pilates and Zumba and Killer Abs.

Pilates is good, my core is definitely stronger than its been in a long long time.  I also like that its quite and calm, Ingred from Balfour Park is an awesome instructor.

Zumba is fun!  Especially since I do it with my mommy on a Sunday morning.  Its a great motivation to get out of bed knowing that I get to share some fun quality time with my mom.  The cup of coffee together afterwards is also great 

Killer Abs is, well, killer! Its definitely a help having someone standing over me pushing me to keep going.  Those are the most hectic 25 minutes of gym ever.  I never sweat quite as much as I do during a Killer Abs class.

Last night I did a baseline fitness test, I need to keep training to improve on my times but these are my results from last night:

• 3km run – 20m16s
• Pull ups – 1
• Sit ups (1 minute) – 28
• Push ups (1 minute) – 13
• 400m sprint – 1m57s

Any advice on what to do to better those stats would be greatly appreciated!

Here are my stats as of 13 May 2013:

• Weight:                   51 kg (down 1.2 kg from last measurements)
• Body fat:                 27.9 % (down 0.6 %)
• Blood Pressure:   94/57 mmHg
• Heart Rate:            100 bpm (ummm, I must have been excited about something!)
• Tummy:                  78cm (down 2 cm)
• Thigh:                     55.5 cm (down 0.5 cm)
• Arm:                        27 cm (down 1 cm)

Our kids are well on their way to being little SciFi geeks too.

Its not uncommon to hear the strains of The Imperial March echoing through the house (they have it on the iPad) while two young {padawans} battle it out with light sabers (they create their own sound effects too) in the play room.

Aaron cannot wait for the new Star Trek movie to come out and loves The Avengers, he has an Iron Man figurine that goes with him everywhere.

Faith will often clutch a towel around her neck and run, fist in the air, shouting Superman, around the house.  She also shows you that Superman can shoot out his eyes, she leans her head forward and squints.

These are the moments that make my geek mama heart proud.

On Monday Aaron stayed home from school (he had a viral infection and was spiking nasty temps).

Faith informed us that the next day she was going to be sick so she could stay home too.

I laughed it off thinking she would forget about it.

But on Tuesday morning she woke up, coughed and told me she was too sick to go to school!

She is 2 years and 5 months old!

Needless to say, she was actually coughing and icky so I let her stay home with her brother.

I think I’m going to have to watch this child really closely.  Sneaky little thing!

Along with an awesome social media team, I have been invited to follow the journey of the South African production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber classic rock musical, {Starlight Express}!

Andrew, Wenchy, Jodene, Shelly, Me and Chevè – Photo by Mariola Biela

And by follow the journey, I mean, skate lessons, rehearsals, costume fittings, set building, dress rehearsals, interviews with cast & crew and finally, opening night.

The most notable thing about the South African production is that, essentially, for the first time since Starlight made its debut in 1984, with the exception of the songs and music, the production is entirely new.  New costumes, new choreography, new, all South African cast, new life!

Yesterday I was privileged to watch the cast in full costume for the first time, skating with lights, smoke machine and music.

Produced by {Joburg Theatre} CEO Bernard Jay and directed by acclaimed director, Janice Honeyman, the local production should be a site to behold!

To come along on the journey with me and the others on Twitter follow:

• The #StarlightExpressSA hash tag 
• The Joburg Theatre
• Jodene
• Wenchy
• Andrew
• Shelley
• Chevè
• and of course me!

I will leave you with some of my impressions from yesterday!

At rest

‘Poppa’

Lights

Consult

Panorama – Rehearsal Stage

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4. ALWAYS BE HONEST.

What is Girls in ICT you ask?

International Girls’ in ICT Day is an initiative backed by ITU Member States to create a global environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to consider careers in the growing field of information and communication technologies (ICTs). International Girls in ICT Day is celebrated on the 4th Thursday in April every year.

Hosted by Anglo African Events in partnership with HP, a few of us bloggers and journos were honoured to be included among about 200 young ladies, these lovely learners are all in grade 12/matric and are starting to seriously think about what to study in the near future.

We got to listen to Keynote speaker, Melanie Botha, Marketing and Ops Director at Microsoft SA, she told us of her fascinating history in various companies across the globe, and imparted one of the most important lessons of the day: ‘Never stop studying, keep learning!’

This was followed by a truly inspirational panel of women, Pippa Tshabalala, Palesa Sibeko, Lebogang Madise, Ntokozo Ncongwane, Shana Kay and Tsoanelo Takaendesa.  These six women are, gamers, programers, IT security experts, app developers, business owners, teachers, tech consultants and all around awesome geeky gals.

These are the women that I want my daughter to look up to.  I want her to see what these women have accomplished and know that she is capable of greatness.  Whether she wants to be a ballerina, am astronaut, a doctor or a techie, she will know that she role models to aspire to.

Myself and Queen. Future tech wizard? I hope so!

I think that todays event gave that opportunity to a room full of intelligent, driven and motivated young women and I hope that they know they can make it in the ICT world, they just have to reach out and grab it with both hands.

We started off talking about octopuses (or octopi or octopodes - yes there are three ways to make octopus a plural!) and how they squirt ink and have suckers on their tenticles, then moved on to sharks and their many many teeth.  We spoke about whales and the fact that they have no teeth and eat plankton.  We spoke about jelly fish, blue bottles, manta rays and electric eels, all of whom can hurt you with a sting or a shock.  We then spoke about sea horses and the fact that the dads carry the babies.

Image from: Everything Octopus

This is where I had a small heart palpitation, cause if daddy sea horses carry the babies why do human mommies and not the dads carry the babies.  Which led to how do babies eat when they are in your tummy?  Ummmmmm, Im not ready for this kind of discussion.  I explained about the umbilical cord and that when you are born it is cut and when the piece falls off it leaves a belly button.

We arrived at my mom then and I was saved from more questions about babies!

Anyway!  Once Aaron was on the right medication (two times a day every day) his asthma was under control.  We havent had a single attack in over a year.  Until Sunday.

Well Saturday night.  Aaron started coughing in the middle of the night, we nebbed him and gave him cough mixture and he eventually fell asleep again.  On Sunday morning though he woke up coughing and didnt stop.  Paul took him to our GP who consults on Sundays and he gave us Pulmicort and antibiotics.  We nebbed him with the new beds and after an hour or so it hadnt helped so I called our (new) pead, also a pulminologist and Aarons asthma dr, and spoke to his partner who was on call.  He suggested a double dose of Combivent and 10ml of cortisone.  Half an hour after giving him those meds there was still no change.

Poor Aaron, he literally could not take one single breath without coughing.

I put him in the car and took him to the hospital where our pead has rooms and called the on call pead again to tell him we were coming.

The nurses in the pead ward were amazing. Friendly and helpful and kind.  The dr arrived and admitted us.  He put in a drip (not sure who was more traumatised, Aaron or me!) and gave him an adrenaline nebuliser and put him on oxygen.

Within 10 minutes he had stopped coughing!

Silly monkey!

Turns out he had a croup attack which caused an asthma attack.  Poor child couldn’t breathe in or out!

We settled ourselves into our room, a private room as there were only 4 or 5 kids in the whole ward.  Aaron was a little hyped up due to the adrenalin and the cortisone they gave him but he was so good.  He charmed all the nurses and the dr and was an absolute angel.

3 adrenalin nebulisers, 4 doses of cortisone and 1 night of broken sleep and by yesterday morning we were allowed to come home.

This was the first time either  of the kids has been hospitalised and was pretty traumatic.  Im so very grateful for the dr and nurses that made the whole event so easy and comfortable to deal with.

Heres hoping we never have to do that again!