Lexington’s Pulse

Big News!! And one of the reasons I’ve been so quiet on this blog in the last several months.

After getting my personal training certification, I’ve been working hard to start working as a trainer. First, I interviewed just about everywhere I could find, and got turned down a LOT because I had no professional experience in that field. Not sure how you’re supposed to get experience if no one will hire you….

Finally, I got hired on at the YMCA, and they gave me one client. One. She happens to be lovely and I greatly enjoy working with her! And, she got my feet wet in the training world. Gave me this oh so desirable “experience” everyone talks about!

Then, I started working with Juice Plus to bring better nutrition to my friends, family, and clients! And my sponsor encouraged me to host an event to get that up and running. I used my Amazon Credit Card to purchase about $400 worth of workout gear to host a functional circuit training bootcamp event! Which went GREAT!! (And I got cash back on my purchases AND have already paid it all off with no interest.)

With that event I realized that with the equipment I got, I am able to train people in their own home… A thought that hadn’t occurred to me previously. Shortly after the event, one of the attendees contacted me, she wanted to hire me as her trainer! We’ve met twice now in her little apartment and she is SO enthusiastic and excited about getting fitter and healthier! I used my payment from her to get business cards, a website, and some big stickers for my car doors to advertise! I also opened up a google maps page and asked my current clients write reviews about their experience with me, and they left glowing reviews!

So, all that to say, I’m getting my business running and I’m so excited!! Please visit my website, LexingtonsPulse.com, and I also have a Facebook page (by the same name) and I’ve turned my personal instagram into my business one since my actual business account got HACKED…. I was MAD and I still have not been able to get “Meta” to do anything about it… Here’s my current insta handle: @mel652020

Thank you for reading and supporting me in this journey into becoming a small business owner!!

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NASM-CPT ✅

As of today, after 5+ months of studying, I am officially a Certified Personal Trainer!

Technically, I could sign my name, Moriah Leech, COA, OSC, NASM-CPT. That’s a lot of letters.

In other news, I thought you may like to see a picture of our cute kitty!

Anyway!! Next up, Nutrition Coach and Virtual Coach certifications!

New Endeavors

Where have. You. Been?! (Any Molly Weasley fans? No? Y’all are lame…)

On a serious note, I’ve been a busy busy camper. In the past few months, I’ve been working towards a new goal. I’ve been a COA & OSC (Certified Ophthalmic Assistant and Ophthalmic Scribe Certified) for 6 1/2 years and, the clinic I work for has been understaffed and poorly managed for the majority of those years. But ever since COVID-19, it has been so so much worse. I have cried almost daily either at work or after work. But I’ve felt so trapped. I don’t like what I hear about other clinics, so I’m afraid to go apply elsewhere. But yet, all my academic achievements so far are in Ophthalmology, so if I want a good paying job, I’ve got to stay in that field. …. Right?

Wrong.

As I’ve been mulling around ideas on how to get OUT of ophthalmology, I began thinking about my mom. For many reasons. My ultimate goal is to be a stay at home mom who makes at least some contribution to the family income, like my mom did. So, how did she do it? She was a Certified Personal Trainer. She made her own schedule and helped people work towards their health and fitness goals, often taking me with her to client meetings/sessions. I grew up in the gym, and I love the gym. Lately I’ve been so overworked that I haven’t been able to go to the gym. Suddenly, it dawned on me.

If I pursue becoming a Certified Personal Trainer, I can get a full time job as a CPT at a gym, work out before or after my client sessions, and still have all the benefits (401k, health/dental/vision insurance, PTO, etc), while doing something I love. And one day when we decide to have kids, I can bring my kid and let them stay in the children’s room, go part time if need be, or find clients independent of the gym and make my own schedule, whichever works best for our family/financial situation.

So, with that revelation, and some talks with my husband, I enrolled in NASM’s CPT program and am so far half way through the online course. It is not easy but I am loving it. I am also enrolled in their Nutrition Coach program, which I’m super excited about because nutrition is fascinating to me.

Currently, after all the craziness that 2020-2021 has put my family through, I have gained a lot of weight. No one would want me as their personal trainer right now. So, as I work towards my certification, I also take the knowledge I’m gaining and apply it to myself. Hopefully, but the time I’m ready to start applying to gyms, I’ll be back much closer to my goal weight.

Prayers, please, for this new adventure. I am SOO excited!!

-TQG

#WifeLife Vol. 5 Boudoir and Anniversary’s

My belated gift (since the photo shoot isn’t until after our June 5th one year anniversary!) to Joseph is going to be a small (10 or so pics) photo album of boudoir photos that I’m having taken. Sexy shots in lingerie and such. I’m excited! The girl taking them is someone I’ve known from church years ago who is a professional photographer now and does a lot of boudoir shoots.

I cannot believe we’ve been married 10 months. Totally bizarre. God has been so faithful to us in this first year. Life’s been insane, but He gave us each other, and that has been so wonderful.

For better or worse, as long as we both shall live.

Last Friday, my husband Joseph took his mom, Linda, to MUSC. Since January, she had been sick, in and out of doctors offices, until it was finally found out that she had a benign polyp on her liver. She was scheduled for an outpatient procedure on Friday, to remove a portion of it, and install a stent, as the polyp was blocking the outflow of the liver. Afterwards, it was expected that she would make a full recovery.

After her procedure, she was admitted to MUSC overnight to be observed, just to make sure, because the procedure took longer than expected.

The following day, she had internal bleeding and threw up blood, so they went in and attempted to find the bleed. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find it, so a third procedure was preformed, which required her to be sedated and intubated. They thought they stopped the bleed, but decided to keep her sedated and intubated so that if she threw up again she would not aspirate.

She seemed to be improving! So, Sunday night they removed the sedation and the ventilator so that she could be awake and breathing on her own.

Monday morning, I felt awful. Sick to my stomach, nauseous, dizzy, I fought with the decision to call out from work… Finally, I decided it makes more sense for me to call out and rest than go to work and feel crappy. So I curled up in bed and got settled while my husband left for work. First, he went to his mom’s house to check in on her pets since she was obviously still at MUSC.

About thirty minutes after he left, he burst into our bedroom, in tears, and collapsed at our bedside.

“Mom’s not doing well… I have to go to Charleston…”

Within another thirty minutes, we were on the road. We got phone calls from doctors explaining that late in the night, she aspirated blood, and damaged her lungs severely. It appeared that she had a perforated bowel, but her vitals were so poor, they could not operate. They took her off sedation, with the hopes she would wake up and they could verify that she could move her arms and legs and communicate, and then they would sedate her again and work on the internal issues. She was on multiple blood pressure medications trying to keep her blood pressure up, she was having blood transfusions, she was on dialysis, etc. Prior to this, she had had ZERO health issues. None. Not diabetic, no high or low blood pressure, no cancers, no smoking, no nothing.

She didn’t wake up. Her vitals kept deteriorating, and it became very clear that without the medications and ventilator, she would be gone already.

Joseph and 3 of his 4 siblings converged on Charleston and after many longs talks, came to the decision to stop life support.

She passed quietly within 5 minutes of the machines cutting off, with all of us around her. Joining her husband, my mother, and many other departed family members in Heaven with Jesus. She will be buried next to my own mom at a nature reserve here locally.

Marriage is not just about the sex, romance, lovey-dovey stuff.

Marriage is about holding your husband as tight as you can and letting him cry over his mom’s body.

About being present and available when he needs to just sit and be held.

Or when he needs to vent about how frustrating things are to figure out, and that he’s upset she didn’t have a will, and left debt and complications for all of us to unravel.

It’s when you sit and cry together over things and don’t say a word.

Marriage is work. But it is the very best work.

• 

In loving memory of Linda L. Leech, Nov. 4, 1947 – March 16th, 2021

On Politics. Sort of.

My only “political” post, more just a post about finances and life. Not to start a conversation. But just because it’s been on my mind.

I remember during the Obama administration, I was THRILLED to see gas at $2.99 per gallon. How unaffordable will Obama 2.0 be? Maybe we’ll spend over $400 a month on gas. Currently even with the fairly reasonable prices, we’ve been spending about $300 per month between the two of us, on just work commutes and grocery trips. Not sure how we’ll afford much more than that. But it’s already starting to rise… (gas prices based on Columbia, SC prices if you’re wondering.)

Lately I’ve been struggling to be still and trust God, as I watch the world crumble into what appears to be lawlessness, on both sides. Being newly married, and hoping to have kids one day, there’s a big part of me that doesn’t know if I want to bring children into this world. There’s so little wisdom, so few people who are still fighting for freedom. So much confusion.

If the minimum wage gets raised, everything will become more expensive so that companies and businesses can stay afloat, pretty much negating the “increased” income. Meaning that ultimately, finances will be even tighter. How will my little family even afford to house, clothe, feed, etc, a child?

Admittedly, I’m fighting a lot of fear of the future. And I know God will provide. He always has. And I do trust Him. But I am also anxious. I’m having a Mark 9:24 moment for sure.

Up until this point, I’ve been very careful with my money/time/resources, built up savings, built my career, and yes, I owe it all to God for sure! But I have worked hard for it, and I take some pride it in, and I have trusted too much in my ability to “pull myself up by my bootstraps”. But the world is changing, and it’s being taken out of my control more and more. And I don’t like it. I’m struggling with being calm about it.

Anyway. That’s just a bit of my recent thoughts. Pray with me for our country, and for me for my stress. I know God’s got this. But there’s a difference between knowing something and feeling it. I know it. But right now, I’m feeling mostly the fear.

“I believe, help my unbelief!”

It’s Beginning Look A Lot Like Christmas! #WifeLife Vol. 5

We had our Christmas photos taken!

Jessie was a spaz the whole time but somehow she still looks epically photogenic.

I ordered my Christmas cards and I am so excited to send them out!! 🎄😁 Married life really is the best.

#WifeLife Vol. 4 : “Plans”

So, as the saying goes, when man makes plans, God laughs. (Or something like that…)

Joseph and I were in a car accident a week ago yesterday. We both hopped in our separate vehicles (me, a Toyota Camry, and he, and Chevy Silverado) and headed out of our apartment complex to work! As I turned out of the complex first, the sun glared into my windshield and instantly caused it to fog up, I could see nothing. So, I slowed down and leaned over to peer under the fog to try and see if I could pull over a bit to let the fog clear before continuing when BANG!!! Did I hit something?! I wasn’t sure, because as I mentioned, I could not see. All I knew was, my neck HURT and my heart was racing. I glanced into the rear view mirror to see my sweet husband, looking extremely concerned, stopped right behind me, hopping out of his truck. It was then that I realized… I had not hit anything. I had been rear ended.. By my husband…

A Chevy Silverado is a BIG four door truck, and a Toyota Camry is a small, four door sedan. His truck pretty much ate my rear end. Totally crushed it. No lights, trunk stuck shut, very much squished.

His truck however, was merely dented. If you weren’t looking for it, you may not even notice it. Such is life. We had planned to replace his truck first, as it drinks fuel like there is no tomorrow and as if money isn’t an issue. (It is…) SO… Being that my little Camry was a 2001 and was only worth about $1,000, and the body and wiring work to fix this was well over what this car is worth.

So with a very sore neck, abs, shoulders, etc, etc, I texted my Dad and my stepmom and told them what happened, and began looking for a new car. Within a few hours, we got a call from my stepmom about a used car dealership that she knew well, and had bought several cars from with her dad and her son. She had taken her lunch break to stop by there, “Moriah, they have Prius’s! For like $6,000!” (Is that how you make Prius plural? I don’t know.) I have always wanted a Toyota Prius, but a new base model is like $27,000, and a used one I had seen online was no cheaper than like $18,000. Definitely more than I had saved up. But, $6,000 I can afford with some room to spare!

Fast forward to the end of that day (in which I did not go to work, because I was super sore. My husband stayed home to keep an eye on me and make sure I didn’t have a concussion.) I had purchased a 2009 red Toyota Prius. About 40mpg, and only about $10-$13 to fill up from E! And man is it fancy! At least as far as I am concerned, but both of my past vehicles were 2001’s and very much not luxury.

So, despite being stuck with the gas guzzler Chevy, we are saving considerable fuel with my little red Prius, I got my dream car, and we were able to then go on a beach vacation!

I was never mad at my hubby for rear ending me. Obviously he didn’t mean to, and he’s been beating himself up about it ever since. And yknow, over all, it worked out. New car. No major injuries. It’s all good.

Anyway. There’s your update from the newlyweds!!

~TQG