Thursday, September 30, 2010

GRE's, Gymnastics, and random ramblings

Brian is not a fan of the GRE's especially not the online version. Apparently when you take the test online whenever you get an answer right it gives you a harder question. Taking the test in paper that cant happen. You get your X amount of questions and those questions dont change based on your answer. We have to wait 15 days for the results. He is a much better test taker then I am and he often does well, even if not as well as he would have liked, on tests/quiz's he isnt sure about so hopefully the GRE's will follow suit.

Gymnastics may be opening up a second class. It would be on Monday's at 8pm. For the past month we have had 4-5 people, and at least 3 expressed interest in another class. We talked about it last Wednesday and Brodie came in all prepared and excited to tell us this Wednesday and it was only me and Will. At first it looked like it was only going to be me. I like Crossfit people being there....it is just frustrating that they are catching up so fast and getting further then I am. I like to think I look prettier then they do other then Monica...I dont mind her bypassing me...she was level 9 and a Ballerina. I have my front tuck now which is pretty cool. I did 5 in a row and I think 10 total yesterday. I have figured out that I get bored when I am not falling. If I am falling I am being challenged and learning something new which is fun. If I am not falling I am not learning anything new, bye bye challenge  and the fun kinda goes away. I need to get Brodie to teach me something new. Maybe a new flip...like a front tuck twist (my term not theirs) which is a Front tuck and turning at the very last second. I also want to be able to do a standing back tuck (from standing, jump up and flip backwards with legs going over head and landing on feet).

So I will be stopping Curves (if I ever manage to get back) in January. I will do two classes at gymnastics as long as they have them and go to their gym in the mean time. If the two classes stop I will think about doing Crossfit more seriously then. What I love about both scenarios is that there is no contract so if our plans do a complete 180 and we leave the beach I am not screwed in terms of contracts.

I am not liking Brian's last semester. I cant remember the last time he was home before 6pm. Tonight he will get home at 7:30. Between classes, applying to grad school, setting up his schools Computer Science club and working extra hours I never see him. That and my schedule doesnt help things either. Tomorrow, since he is working, Alyson and I are going to have a movie night! Sunday Brian may be home and I may be going to Church and maybe over to Carolines afterwards. We have been trying to see Toy Story 3 for over a month now and can never make it. We are aiming for next week....hopefully.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

It is looking alot like Christmas!

Every where we turn.....

Not really but it is wet and rainy which is a typical CT Christmas...it just isnt cold :). Anyway I ALWAYS get on the xmas gift train early and well we are starting in September this year so I can plan for more people. I have ignored alot of friends based on not planning long enough ahead and running out of room in the budget. I HAVE to get better this year and in the future. I think the South is getting to me in this aspect, I have to get better at sending cards out as friendly catch ups and remembering holidays and birthdays if only a card.  So I am taking a break from cleaning (I still have to vacuum, organize the bedroom which is ALWAYS the room that gets forgotten and some more laundry) to show you what I like, so far, for xmas/bday ideas.

Rachel's Xmas list:

L.L. Bean:

I love getting this catalog but it makes me sad at the same time. There is SO much stuff that I like but SOOO much stuff I cant or should not get as I am in the South and dont need it.  Alot of this is clothing because I still feel like I have nothing that actually fits right or looks right, still trying to get a wardrobe that I dont feel like a ragamuffin if I am not in work clothes. :)

Cotton/Cashmere Sweaters: Code GG266965 Turtleneck. I think I am a size Medium. I would prefer Solid colors and the only color I dont think would look good would be the Turquoise Heather.

Bean's Fitness Fleece:  Zip front Hoodie, Misses GG255418. Black/Brown goes with everything but I always get jackets in those colors in my attempt to match and not feel like a ragamuffin even though I still do. So maybe a fun color? Up to you guys but the only color out of the choices I see that I dont think would look good on me is the Golden Cider and lets stay away from white since I am like the Clorax pads you put into the wash...I am a stain magnet. Sizing....Lets say Medium, I would like to be able to wear more then just a tshirt underneath and according to their chart a Medium should be a little big

Bean's Fleece-lined Hoodie: Misses GG258799. As this is a jacket jacket I think I would need/want the Navy color or Chocolate Brown. A color easy to match with everything else is very important...I failed that part of Kindergarten and am finally getting the hang of it now :). Size: lets stick with Medium.

Vacationland Sport Casuals:  Mary Jane GG264287. I cant decide between the Brown or Black. And they come in Wide as well and since I get my amazing feet from my wonderful Daddy the size should be something Wide. I am thinking 9w. These look so comfy and would give my other work shoes a break so I wouldn't wear them out completely.

Bean's Swift River Sweaters; Long Button Front Hoodie, Misses GG264946. Any color other then Cream....stains would show up a bit too much on it hehe. Size: probably a Medium.

Hearthside Slippers: Moccasin GG264582. I really like the Bright Berry or Chocolate. Size 9

LL Bean also has lots of shirts, long and short sleeved that I like. But you can get those anywhere :) Vneck look better on me if I am just wearing it by myself but I have several wool sweaters that I would need crew or turtle neck for...

Maybe it is a good thing for you all that I dont live anywhere colder :-\.

Footie Pajamas! Do NOT get them from Bigfeetpjs.com! That is where I got my first pairs, and boy do they shrink! I could not wear them cause they didnt just shrink once..they kept on shrinking. Plus the butt flap didnt work quite right...you could see my bum with the flap up. I found what looks like a better place:


Adult Footie Pajamas!

I would like two. One with a drop seat and one without. There is no preference in fabric whether it be flannel or fleece doesn't really matter.  I really like the Penguin ones:


I should be a size 5 for them.

J Jill:


Point Knit Pencil Skirt: I dont know if I am Misses or Petite but the code is XM038B or XM038BP for petite. I would like it in black. I think this would be perfect for work or just casually :)

I think I would be Medium...the only question would be Medium Petite or Medium Misses

That is it for me.

Brian's list:

Polos: size XL
Khakis: size 36"x30"
Button downs: casual and dress size XL
Belt: Brown and Black
Gift Cards to Jos. A Banks.
Gift Cards to Bed Bath and Beyond

Catch a theme? Brian needs clothes for work since he is graduating in December :) Bed Bath and Beyond is something fun for the kitchen his choice :)

Anyway, obviously these are gifts and are unexpected and a privilege to receive not an absolute guarantee. I recognize this and only post these ideas for the people who would like to know what we would like. My family grew up on coming up with a list of ideas and mailing/emailing them to the relatives who asked for help. I have just taken our lists and brought it up to speed with technology :)

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

I am becoming a Godmommy! and the GRE's

So I am loving these weekly dinners at Caroline's with Alyson and the gang. It is just so nice to be with great friends and just confirms that I was right about Caroline and Alyson and the relationships were there and real and I wasn't making them up or looking too much into them (I apparently have issues with over analyzing relationships and thinking they are more then what they really are). I love getting to know their family even better, it has made life at the beach just so much better. Having friends to see can really change one's perspective! The weeks have been flying by. In less then 10 days I will be watching my other best friend Nicole getting married :) I have to pick up the dress from the tailors tomorrow. And a  month after that I will be at home in CT for Thanksgiving! SO exciting!

Anyway, Alyson's kids are not baptized yet. Austin is 8 Madelyn is 2. She was never against baptizing them but didn't have anyone in her life she could trust her kids to if God forbid anything were to happen so she wasn't going to do it until she found those people. She also wanted all her kids to have the same god parents so they wouldn't get too split up, etc. So she has asked me to be the Godmommy to both her kids and in theory if she has anymore in the future to those children as well. Goddaddy will be a gentleman named Walker who is Alyson's cousin. One thing I have learned about Caroline is that she is more religious then I thought. This whole baptism process is turning out to be a lot different then I thought. I kinda thought you just showed up at the church the day of the baptizing, went through the ceremony and voila! God parents. Now what you did after that was your thing. Some God parents are more involved then others and I guess that is personally their choice. I hope to be involved in these kids lives as long as they want me to be.

I actually have to go take classes which might mean I have to find my bible....I hope it is here with me. And of course all these classes are on Sundays which is really hard for me to get off of work since I am the only one who works Sundays. I have other people with me but they rotate as no one else really wants to work on Sunday. So I have had to do some finagling with my schedule since I cant request off as others have requested it off before me and I don't another co-worker to have to work for me since she always goes to Church on Sundays. This Sunday I am going at 8am with Caroline just to get familiar with the Church and will head to work afterwards. On the 10th I wont be here as I will be participating in a Wedding :). On the 17th and 24th of October the classes start at 10am and go to 11am so I will go to work at 7am, work till 9:30, get to the class and come back to work and work till 4 to finish my 8 hours. The actual baptism is on November 21st the day before I leave for my Thanksgiving break. This is going to take a bit more finagling. I have run out of vacation days and don't want to take it unpaid and dont want to borrow against next years vacation time but I have to be there and it will be an all day thing. I won a contest over a year ago at work and I am hoping my boss will let me trade the prize I have yet to receive and give me an extra vacation day so I could use that on November 21st. It will save the company about $30 dollars or so and would really work better for me so as far as I can see it is a win/win. My boss and I have talked about this before and he wasnt ever against the idea and seemed to be intrigued by it but it just hasnt happened yet. I never pushed because I didnt need it yet. I sent him an email so hopefully :)

This Friday Alyson and I are going to have a movie night since Brian has to work. Brian has also been working really hard at school and filling out his Grad School Application. He takes the GRE's today and so he is moving forward there. I am so excited about Friday. I am not sure what is going on after work on Sunday if I am coming home or going to Caroline's. I figure I will wait and see.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

My Photobooks

Well I got too excited and antsy so I tried to upload my photo's to Shutterfly again. I didn't try the Ireland ones figuring I would just send those in via CD so I started with my pictures in South Carolina and the ones in North Carolina. It worked!! I have three more albums to create for North Carolina but I didn't want to get ahead of myself and I left out my current town as I will do that when I finally move but the rest of South Carolina is uploaded. I then started putting them into book form. I actually think they are going to look a lot like the snapfish one which is good. I did decide to do it via town rather then one HUGE book so I have a book on Greenville, one on Columbia and another on Charleston.

Shutterfly was also having a sale: Free shipping on orders $30+, 20% off on photo books 8x11 (which is the size I have/want), 20% off on additional pages for photobooks 8x11, AND 40% off one full order. So I ended up getting 60% off the photo books plus free shipping. My total should have been 121 plus shipping but I ended up getting all three for $79 with shipping being free. So I ordered them all :). South Carolina is done until I move out of current town :).

I will continue to send in the CDs and will work on getting those finished so I can finally get the Study Abroad trip done but I will continue to try and upload the NC albums myself so when I am done with Study Abroad I just have to make the books, and for the albums that dont go through (they have an issue with Windows 7 apparently) I will mail them a CD. Easy peasy. The North Carolina books wont take very long so as long as I keep chugging away I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

After this project gets finished I guess it is really time to tackle the recipes *sigh*

My Photobooks

So since I have updated the scrapbook as much as  I can, I am looking for another project to finish. i have two on going projects left to complete. Re-typing ALL of the recipes so they are all the same and we can have our own make shift cookbook and completing my photobooks. The typing of the recipes is just hard. It hurts my eyes and is just boring and no fun. Plus we keep adding recipes to my pile so it is a never ending project or so it seems. I really need to sit down and do it but eh. It's Brian's solution to all the recipes we have lying around and I cant think of a better one but they just arent any fun.

I like the photobooks much better. A lot more fun. I am still bitter that I have to REMAKE all of my Ireland/England/Spain one's since I had them the way I liked them but oh well. I am still trying to decide whether or not to redo the ones I already bought so that they all match. I don't know. I fired Snapfish because their system wouldn't allow my photo's to upload but they were going to charge me to mail them a CD for them to do. I am now using Shutterfly...I also have issues uploading my pictures to their site but I can send them a CD of my pictures for free. So I am working with Shutterfly. I think if my Webshots albums had the titles on the spine so you would know what you were looking at without having to pull it out I wouldn't feel the huge need to redo them. If i decide to redo them, they will be the last to be done I know that's for sure.

I have about 8 CD's that I need to send in to Shutterfly already, I just have to get the CD mailers and print out the paperwork and mail them off. I will mail them off one every couple of days, create the book and buy the book. I am not going to make the same mistake I did with Webshots and make them ALL and wait till I have the money and buy them then. I will make a book, buy the book, make the book, buy the book, etc. Some of the albums/books I haven't put on CD yet as the album has multiple folders within it and Shutterfly wont be able to download them like that so rather then putting ALL of those pictures on one CD and getting confused as to what is what as they are no longer separated I am going to send each sub section as it's own CD and do them last so I dont get so confused.

After I finish redoing the Ireland books (the Spain and England were the ones I did and bought from Webshots that may be redone at a later date) I am going to get started making books for our North Carolina trip(s) and our escapades in South Carolina as well. If we go to Georgia, I really hope we make it to Georgia, that will become a book as well. I cant decide if I am going to do multiple books for each state like each town getting its own book or doing it as one whole big book. I am leaning towards doing multiple books for each state as it may get WAY too big otherwise. I hope to turn all our trips in the future into photobooks and you better believe we will do photobooks of the kids when we have them. A lot of people do scrapbooks but this is just so much easier and cheaper all things considered. I really hope Shutterfly continues to work as well as it so far has. It is frustrating having to find new companies especially if you want everything in each series to look the same and you are switching companies.

These mailer envelopes just cant here fast enough! I am ITCHING to get started again!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Haircut idea and hanging out with Caroline and Alyson

Brian and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the show "The Big Bang Theory". It is now on Thursdays on CBS and it is our all time favorite show. We DVR the new episodes and get the previous seasons (we accidentally found it mid way third season or so) via Netflix. Tonight we get the first disc to Season 2! SO excited! Anyway I could do a whole post on Big Bang Theory.


One of the secondary characters is named Missy. I love her haircut/do and totally think I could pull it off. It is still long and just pretty I think. I couldn't find any really good shots but here is what I could find. What do you think?


And her professional non Big Bang Theory photo:

All pictures were googled and do not belong to me.

Caroline/Alyson visit

Yesterday afternoon after work I went over to Caroline's to hang out with her, Alyson and Alyson's cutie pies Austin and Madelyn. Oh my goodness, I havent had so much fun in so long. I just went over to hang out, no real plans. Caroline wasn't there when I got there as she got rear-ended on the way home from grocery shopping but got there later. Man we just talked and talked about everything and anything. It was so nice to be in a home with a family again. I have almost forgotten what it feels like. I was even asked to stay for dinner! Well I wasn't really asked...it was almost assumed that I would stay. She made pot roast, green beans and scalloped potatoes. Alyson made Brie with Sherry before dinner. SO good! I didnt end up leaving till 9pm. I was exhausted but it was SO much fun! I think it is going to become a weekly thing, having Sunday dinners at Caroline's. I couldnt be happier. We were going to try and do something tomorrow as it is my day off (since one of my coworkers is out on maternity leave it looks like my weekends are Tuesdays and Wednesdays now) but I am sick. I have been going in and out of a fever all day so I am going to take tomorrow and rest. Wednesday I have to get my oil changed and my bridesmaids dress altered for Nicole's wedding and gymnastics but that is it.

I am now going to take a hot shower, drink some tea and watch tv

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Since work never seems to calm down...

I walked in yesterday thinking it was going to be a typical 7am-3pm shift. When I looked at the schedule to see who was coming in and noticed they had changed my schedule so that I would be leaving at 5pm. The only reason I can think of as to why they didn't call me last night was because they knew the answer would be yes. Of course they were right, I am fine helping out and the overtime is always nice but I sort of wish I got a phone call or even a text the night before. I didn't bring enough food with me but that proved unnecessary as I will explain in a bit.

The reason I had to stay late was a co-worker couldn't make it right at three and while check in was going to be easy there would be a lot of people coming in and I was to cover until that person came in.In the morning my cohort for the check out shift and I decided that since no one would be here in the morning to do the gift cards for tomorrow today that I would go ahead and do them yesterday morning as well as doing today's rewards cards. I was going to have to do them either way I just chose to do them yesterday or tonight on top of everything else I have to do. My cohort was okay covering the front desk as check out was going to be easy...a lot of people but easy. I had about 150 to do and started at 7am and did not finish till 10:30am. I had brought breakfast but was rushing so never ended up eating it. I did not have time to go and microwave it and eat it so at about 9am I ordered a bacon egg and cheese sandwich from the restaurant something I NEVER do but it was oh so good! My idea was that I would eat what I had brought throughout the day and viola I now have enough food for the day. However I barely got a chance to drink my V8 at 12:30 let alone anything else.

Before three both managers had issues to take care of so there wasn't anyone to help my cohort out if I went back and ate. The coworker I was covering for did end up coming in very early but I stayed to help cover the phones since my boss had to leave to take care of some other business. I have no idea what was going on at The Beach today but everyone was looking for rooms and we were sold out! The phones were going off the hook and everyone was checking in so I didnt get a chance to leave to make my food and eat it. Our microwave in the back office is broken and they haven't replaced it yet so I have to go to the kitchen behind the restaurant to cook the food and bring it back to the back office. That takes time which I didnt really have. Also I wasnt sure when I would be leaving and thought Brian would have food ready when I got home (he did) and didnt want to eat and then be asked to leave and expected to eat AGAIN at home. Well I didn't end up leaving until 8:30pm. The phones had calmed down and so did check in but my night time manager had to help solve an issue so I was covering for her.

Needless to say, I was starving when I got home. Brian was making chicken bog so we would have food for the weekend since we were supposed to go grocery shopping last night and I ate my left over Olive Garden. Brian and I watched some tv....well he watched while I fell asleep on his lap. I remember moving to the bedroom but thats it until 9am this morning.

Anyway, I want to help out at work and I enjoy helping cover for people because I like feeling needed but I need to find a balance. I was invited out last night by a friend and couldn't go, had to skip grocery shopping again so that makes food this weekend hard. We have not been able to go grocery shopping except once this month and so far so we have gone over in our restaurant budget and Brian has been forced to go over his "fast food" budget. I will go more into the budget in a couple days or so. Staying late/covering for people has also become one of the main reasons why I end up skipping Curves other then the fact that it is very boring right now.

If I do Crossfit in January I dont want to have to skip classes. It is too expensive for me to skip them and skipping them wont get me in any better shape. But I know myself, I know if asked to stay late I will no questions asked. So the main realization last night caused was that if I do Crossfit I need to do it in the morning before work at 6 am and see if I can adjust my schedule. That way I wont skip because of work. Plus if I dont need to stay late my day is over alot earlier then it is now. This will make the summer a lot better and since our season is SOOOO long it will leave me freer to help out when needed but not feel like I am sacrificing my free time as much as I am now. Brian wont get neglected as much, I may actually have time to see friends and/or schedule activities without fear of my work schedule changing so drastically that I have to chose between working out and friends, I think it will make my life a lot easier. Doing it in the morning should also help with finding/getting more time to do the grocery shopping.

Now if I can get up at 5am to work out at 6am.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Crossfit

If Brian and I stay in the area  I think I am really going to try and do Crossfit. I have an email out to one the employees/owners with questions I need answered before I make a definite decision but I have a good feeling about this.

Crossfit is a very intense work out program. One that needs to be taken very seriously, a lot of people in the military, special forces, policemen/women, etc do it but so do a lot of lawyers, housewives etc. If you google Crossfit you are going to get varied results. Some that love it and swear by it, the others relating it to the devil. The people that dont like it feel that it isnt safe or safe enough. Bare in mind, these posts are mostly from 2005 and earlier and a lot has changed since then. From what I have seen I dont think it is any more unsafe then other fitness programs. You can get bad instructors who teach you the wrong ways or you, yourself, can ignore common sense and/or your teacher do the activity wrong and hurt yourself on your own through no fault of the sport or instructor. There are plenty of people who get hurt or worse in gymnastics, boxing, horse back riding, weight lifting, etc. I do believe it would be a lot easier to get hurt in Crossfit due to the activities but I also think that the person doing Crossfit needs to be aware of his/her ability and not do too much to fast and learn to stop rather then keeping going. I think the line between safe and unsafe is alot thinner in Crossfit.

Now that I have scared you all to death, at The Warehouse where my gymnastics is located (the gymnastics company is Ultimate Gymnastics Academy or UGA) has a Crossfit gym within it. A lot of Crossfit is done on your own by following the website, in a barn/warehouse, or if you are lucky enough in a gym. If it were not in a gym setting I do not think I would be so eager...I somehow feel safer about it and feel it is more legit when it is in an actual gym then if it were in someones barn. However, I recognize a lot of gyms are threatened by it. I have met with the Coaches for Crossfit and they are amazing people. They definitely have a safety first mentality and are just a blast.

So what is Crossfit? www.crossfit.com is the official website. This is what you would use if you were to do this at home. They have an exercise a day and they are either named after girls or men. The men are referred to as "heroes" as they are all military personnel who have passed away in recent years. On that website it tells you in details what the exercise is, has access to videos showing you how to do said exercise and a link to another website giving great substitution ideas in case he weight/activity is too much for your level. The standard on the website is your goal...not what you should be starting out at. Mainly, Crossfit is circuit training without machines. They do have a ridiculous diet your "supposed" to follow but I am sticking to my own...sorry cant eat like a caveman (literally!) I need my pasta and potatoes among other things. These activities are also timed, I think this is where you would get really hurt if you dont watch yourself. They mark how well you are doing by not your form but how fast you can do said exercise. The faster the better. A lot of people give up on the form and therefore get hurt lifting all that weight so quickly. I want to do the exercise right first, fast second.

Crossfit is not an exercise program to get you better at a specific activity. If you really just want to box better...Crossfit is not for you. It is more general then that. They look at over all strength and endurance and use aspects of yoga, gymnastics (yay I have that!), weight lifting, rowing, etc. to get you in shape. They also dont use machines.  They do use some free weights but mostly you are using your own body weight or calisthenics. If you Google Crossfit images you will see a lot of parallel bars, rings, other gymnastics tools, and rowing machines. Everything else is lifting things you would never think to lift....a HUGE tire or bar bells with a huge amount of weight on it. I am excited that I have so much gymnastics under my belt as maybe I wont be so weak/beginner then I would without it. This is more of a renaissance exercise program (good at all but not great at one specific thing) though it has been shown that people doing Crossfit often beat people who actually train for specific activities. They will run faster, farther then a runner who has trained to be a runner. That being said, since I am not an actual athlete I dont think I care about it being generalized, I think that is what I want as I have nothing specific to work towards. Crossfit also encourages doing sports or activities outside of Crossfit. They believe that everything they do will help you in prove in anything you would want to do. Where as people who are training to run wont transition well to boxing. And most anything you do outside of Crossfit will help you within Crossfit as well. I like the fact that while they believe in what they do and will give you results with just Crossfit, they recognize and encourage you to try other activities. I often feel that other programs are "us just us" and thats not fun.

Since I dont exactly understand the exercises yet and therefore cant explain them, I will post pictures of a few. I know very little about form right now so these might be examples of people doing them wrong but it will give you an idea. I am not afraid of my coaches telling me to do it wrong as they are now in my gymnastics class and form is very important to them. They are also great motivators. I have been having so much fun since they joined and I have improved dramatically and have become a lot more consistent since they joined as well.

On to the pictures (I have googled all images):




I think this is a good overall picture of what the exercises consist of
He is throwing a weight that they use a lot




I got the idea about Crossfit before I even started gymnastics but thought it wasnt for me at the time. Between the activity level, cost and time, it just didnt work. Because I am already a member of the Warehouse I am hoping they will knock down the price a bit which would be nice. I may be able to play with my schedule to make the class times doable and because of gymnastics and Curves I think I am at the right activity level to start. I started to rethink it last week when the Crossfit trainers came to my gymnastics class and decided on it last night during gymnastics class.

So that is Crossfit, and that is what I hope to be doing in January if we stay in the area. Yes I know very long post but to leave something out would help leave the wrong impression.

And LOVING blogger and how EASY it is to post pictures! I dont even have to upload them! This also served as a test for that ;)

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Hyperbole and a Half: The Four Levels of Social Entrapment

This is why I have no friends....I fail at conversations and this post, while HILARIOUS, describes me to the T I am afraid. We all have moments where this post seems like our life but I feel most of my moments in life is this post.


Hyperbole and a Half: The Four Levels of Social Entrapment

Weight Loss Update and Tupperware party

Welcome to Blogger!

So according to Curves I am no longer obese as their tests showed in January I am merely over weight. I do not believe I was ever Obese. Was I overweight? Of course! But Obese???? If I was obese the people that I think of being Morbidly Obese (350 + lbs) I dont know. It blows my mind.

So I have been slack about going to Curves. August was hell with work and the end of the summer season. September has eased up but we are still full because it is now group season. I had to pull a lot of over time (yay money but boo exhaustion)  to help cover for coworkers because as I like to call it ...life happened. I have not missed a single gymnastics class and that has moved to one day a week. I love the extra time I have but I miss the second class. Brodie, my coach, has become one of my best friends even though I only see him during class.

I finally got a chance to go back to Curves yesterday. I am skipping today because I tend to do better at gymnastics if I don't do Curves. I figured this out recently. I felt really good after going yesterday partly due to the exercise (I think that word is spelled wrong, for some reason I have issues with that word and rely on spell check and now it just looks weird) but I also got weighed for the first time since July. Told you I had become slack! Well even with me not going as often as they wanted me to I still managed to lose 3 lbs and 3 1/2 inches making my total weight loss: 18 lbs and inches: 21 1/2. I now weight 160 which is what my drivers license says and 10 lbs away from my goal.

So my goals in January were:

Bust: 36"
Waist: 27" (Can you believe Scarlett O'Hara's waist was 17"?????)
Abdomen: 35"
Hips: 38" (I think she was having a blonde moment on that one)
Thighs: 24"
Arm: 12"

Where I am now

Bust: 35.5"
Waist: 28.5"
Abdomen: 36"
Hips: 41"
Thighs: 24.5"
Arms: 12.5"

So I have beat one of my goals and am very close to the others :)

I have made a decision about Curves. We really don't know what is going to happen in December/January. We are several options...hoping for some more then others but at this point it is really anyone's guess. My contract with Curves ends in January at which point I can leave and do whatever or stay and go monthly for the same price. If we end up staying in the area I think I am going to leave Curves. It has obviously worked and I am very grateful to them but I like a challenge. I like doing things that shock other people hence why I did Outward Bound, Gymnastics, and heck moving down here. I like signing up for things that people would never expect and succeed in them. It is how I live my life and Curves is no longer a challenge. I dont know if it ever was but it helped get me to a fitness level where I could sign up for more challenging programs etc. I am definitely going to go do something else fitness related on top of gymnastics but I am not sure what. I figure I have until January to figure that out though I do have an idea.

Okay on a completely different note, I got invited to my friend Caroline's house for a Tupperware party. Caroline was one of my favorite managers of all time at Victoria's Secret. She was the one I walked in and gave my application to, she was the one who interviewed me (my favorite interview session so far), and she was the one to call me asking if I was still interested. She and I became very good friends and since I left Victoria's Secret we have fallen out of contact as both our lives got very busy. She also has a daughter that is 3 years and 1 day older then I am Allyson. Allyson is just as much fun. I love that family. We have so much in common and I really miss them but it looks like we have gotten back in contact. Allyson and Caroline are selling Tupperware and Allyson is just starting so they were doing her first show and I was invited. It was so much fun! My other good friend Cindi from VS was there, Brodie's mom and cousin were there (Brodie's family and Caroline are next door neighbors and Caroline's son Blake works and is a Coach for UGA my gymnastics company). The party started at 6 and of course I was the first one there and I ended up leaving around 10pmish. The time just flew by and it felt so good to be with friends again. Brodie's mom is really awesome, Allyson had her friend Alli there and Alli is a sweetheart as well. I spent a lot of time with Austin, Allyson's son who is about 8 or so, talking about the Lego video games and the Transformers, etc. He is just so sweet! I dont know if he fully remembers me but what a sweet little boy. Allyson's daughter Madelyn who is 2 now was there as well. Last time I really saw her she was 6 months old and was sleeping in my arms as I sold bras to women at VS. Madelyn is definitely 2 and I do not know how Allyson handles her! I was exhausted just watching her! The party was a blast and we have all vowed to do it again and not be strangers. Life is just not as fun without them. In fact I think Allyson is going to gymnastics with me tonight! So excited!