Bullet Points

Yes, I'm resorting to bullet points. It's been TOO long. So, in short - here's what I've been up to.

• Hiked the Grand Canyon (oh yes I did!) Pictures follow. This trip is highly recommended.

Our campsite. Yeah...it was sorta beautiful.

On the way down...

Every turn was seriously breathtaking. I wish the pictures did it justice.

• Learned to sew - somewhat decently. Just finished baby gifts for a friend last night. I get way too excited when I've made something. It also is slightly scary because I picture cute babies in my future and my husband rolls his eyes.
• I've revamped my website at school and LOVE it. Then I wonder...does it matter that much?
• I'll be presenting at a conference in February about my absolute favorite web 2.0 (FREE!) tool for the classroom. Edmodo. I love you. Really, seriously. If you're a teacher and you haven't heard about it, ask me...or better yet, come see me at the eMINTS Winter Conference in February!
• Read lots of books, but that goes without saying, right?

Currently my cat has decided to take over my lap so I must end this amazingly wonderful update of my life.

Currently Reading: The Book Whisperer (I'm excited about this one), Good Without God (heard this bit about Humanism on NPR and got interested)

Scattered Update

• I finished my first dress that I made ALL BY MYSELF today. Yay me! I'll post a picture Thursday.
• My dog is scared of watermelon. Seriously. I picked one up off the counter today and she went bezerk. It was one of the most hilarious things I've ever seen in my whole life. Well okay, maybe not my whole life, but it was damn funny.
• This evening when we took our dogs on a walk Zoey didn't pull. It's a miracle. I tell you, that dog's been pulling on the leash ever since we got her (over a year ago). I probably shouldn't get so excited about a dog walking on a leash but it's awesome.
• I have to go to work tomorrow. I'm not excited about that.
• I really liked the books North and South and Love and War by John Jakes. So, of course, I wanted to watch the television mini-series (again). I'm really loving that E likes watching it too! :)
• I'm going to the Grand Canyon!!! My brother and his girlfriend as well as E and I are going for five days. We're going to hike down into it and camp out a couple days. It'll probably be hotter than h-e-double hockey sticks, but I've wanted to go for so long I don't care right now.

Currently Reading: Just finished Mudbound, it was awesome.

Trying to be creative...

I made these fun little coasters for my friend's housewarming party yesterday. And besides the fact that I couldn't find a needle and thread (seriously?) to do an invisible stitch (hello!? am I the only one who's never heard of an invisible stitch? how cool!) they still turned out cool. You'll have to imagine though cause I forgot to take a picture. They were cute.

In other news, E & I had a pretty awesome (read: really REALLY filling dinner) the other night: Hummus Quesadillas and a Southwest Salad. Okay, so E's salad was just a regular salad with some cucumbers. He didn't want to throw on the beans (who doesn't like beans...really...) or the avocado, or the salsa. And his "hummus quesadilla" didn't have any hummus either. Haha, oh well. Mine did, and it was pretty good. I'll admit, I've never bought an avocado before, and frankly, I wasn't that impressed. Maybe I got a dull one, but it didn't seem to have much flavor. I got the recipes from a new blog I found, Feed Me I'm Cranky. Which really, is so true. :)

Yes, we have dinner on the coffee table.

I've taken the doggies to the dog park three times this week - twice to run. Boy was it H-O-T! Seriously, the amount of sweat was ridiculous. Last night we ran (only a mile) and I swear they almost killed me when they took off after a squirrel. Fortunately I was quick enough to stay on my feet. I really love running with my girls though, it's a motivator (they're full of energy, so I really should take them), and it distracts me from what I'm doing (I'm making sure not to trip on them, watching out for squirrels, etc.). Overall, I like it.

It's my break day from P90X. Thank you! This is the end of week 5, sweet! I have triceps, in case you were wondering. I've never had triceps before.

Okay, so that's not my triceps, but still...

This weekend I will attempt to make my first dress. I'm excited, and nervous. And really excited about going to Joann's this afternoon to find some cute fabric. I'm a nerd. It's cool.

Happy weekend, everyone!

Currently Reading: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (for the umpteenth time).

The Poor Man's Vacation

As a kid my family and I went on float trips every summer, multiple times each summer. I loved them. I don't know what it is exactly about floating down a river that's so relaxing and fun, but if you've never been, go. Seriously. What's not to love? Water. Sun. Camping. CHEAP. Smores. Seriously.

The group (minus me) getting ready to bus to the drop off point.

So, some friends and I went on a float trip this past weekend, and besides the sunburn I'm still feeling, it was pretty awesome. It started out interestingly enough. We couldn't find the place (bad Google Maps!), our campsite was taken by people who weren't supposed to be there, there was no grill for our hot dogs/hamburgers, three of our friends couldn't make it, they were out of kayaks, um...oh, my brother's car got rear-ended on the way there....then he also had some front bumper issues when we tried to leave. BUT, besides all that, we still had a great time. It was the perfect weather for a float trip, the river was great, the drunks were funny (as usual), and I've decided we need to make it an annual thing. Next time we're bringing along a couple dogs, cause I know they'd LOVE it.

In P90X news? So far....I'm doing it. If you look at my workout widget to the right, I've been updating it each time I work out, which is almost everyday (minus Friday - my rest day - and Saturday - the float trip). This is week 4 for me on the program, meaning it's recovery week. Last night I did a painful session of Yoga X - painful because there are parts were you have to rest on your shoulders/back, which right now is pretty red and irritated (thanks sun!). Today I'm going to try and do both Core Synergistics and Kenpo X. I don't like to get off schedule, at all. If I get off, I get off bad, and then I just give up. Silly? Probably. But true.

Oh, and get this. Last week I burned over 6000 calories. That's like, a lot. I never burn that many calories. And yet? I gained 2 pounds. WHAT?! All I have to say is that better be 2 pounds of pure muscle. I know I didn't eat any more than I usually do, so what gives? I told myself at the beginning of my "P90X Journey" that I wouldn't mind if I gained weight, but let me rephrase that, I won't mind if I gain muscle, but I'd still rather be slimmer than I was before I started. I want to lose some inches, gain some muscle tone.

I'll leave you with some cute pictures from our wedding. Fortunately after one of our dogs chewed up the wedding picture CDs the photographer was able to make us another copy. Yay for backups!

Little T-monster (my nickname for the baby) comforting me after mascara found it's way on my dress.

I feel like we look photoshopped, but it's just so pretty! E & I at my parent's farm.

I really like this shot of me & my bridesmaids. And it was even one of those silly ones where the photographer said, "Pretend like she said something really funny," but it worked. Who'da thunk?

Currently Reading: Umm...I haven't perused my bookshelf yet, but it better not be too interesting, I've got stuff I could be doing, right? :)

Ouch.

When I first started really running a couple years ago I got shin splints. Then I didn't stop running for longer than a day or so, so they never had the chance to heal. Therefore, every time I ran I felt sore afterward. I remember the first time I wasn't sore later I wondered what I was doing wrong.

The reason I'm telling you this? I'm sore. P90X makes me sore. Everywhere. But I like it.

Today was Plyometrics. I really like this workout (however if you would've asked me 2 hours ago when I was in the middle of it I wouldn't have said that). It's SO much like the bootcamp workout that I did at the gym last year, it's nice, I already know the moves, I know I can do them, and it definitely gets your heart rate up.

So far my least favorite workout is Yoga X. I like the weights workouts, because I never do weights, so I like the guidance, and I like that I imagine I'm already seeing results. I'm sure I'm not, I just never paid attention to my arms before, but I can imagine, right?

I'm making this brown bread recipe tonight and I'm excited. I LOVE bread. Off to the grocery store to get some yogurt (and diet coke of course).

Currently Reading: Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult (yeah I know, I already read chick lit for this summer, but it was only $6 at Barnes & Noble, I couldn't pass that up!) Read Stay by Allie Larkin last week - really good!

Updates in pictures (and a few words)...

Even my parent's beagle had fun at the wedding. All I'll say about our wedding is that it was exactly how I wanted it and I loved it. For more on the wedding, check out my Aunt's post here. I should be getting the pictures from our photographer soon, so maybe I'll say more then. :)

Our trip to Canada was great (besides that basket of fish and chips, which was just a greasy mess). Gorgeous, but wet. I'll take Missouri weather any day - even days like yesterday when the heat index was 105 degrees. Ew.

Tennessee was awesome. Really. Beautiful. The Smoky's are gorgeous. That falls behind us, Ramsay Cascades, was beautiful and worth the hike that made my butt sore the next day (all uphill...until you turned around of course, then you had to fight to stay upright all the way back down). Need an idea of how gorgeous? Let me show you:

Both of these are along the trail. Now for some mountain shots...

Left: The Smoky's being Smoky. Right: Erik after we encountered a bear on our hike. No joke. Needless to say we abandoned that trail and got on a nearby road and ended up running for a couple miles. This shot was taken shortly before we encountered two more bears. It was interesting. And fun :)

After our trips we had to puppysit for my brother and his girlfriend. Now, when I say had to, I really mean GOT to. She's so freakin adorable. See below for evidence.


Last week I started P90X. This is my hope. I hope that I can blog through my P90X experience, which will make me keep up with blogging a bit better. If I really impress myself I might even post pictures. Yesterday was my first experience with Kenpo X and I wasn't too impressed - it wasn't as fun as the hype made it sound. However, I am sore today - so some progress had to've been made, right? Today I have to do legs and back. I'm really hoping blogging through this will make me actually stick with it. Here's hoping!

Oh, and no more 3 month absences from blogging. At least not soon...I hope!

Currently Reading: Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner (I require at least 1 chick lit book per summer, please forgive me)

You mean you're supposed to post on a blog?

Yeah, you can just check me off as one of the worst bloggers this year. Seriously. My problem is I tell myself to post, then I put it off because I think I have nothing interesting to post, then I think it's been too long, then 2 months have passed. Yes, I admit. I'm bad.

Right now I'm smack in the middle of the busiest part of the school year. 7th grade volleyball has begun. Practice every night, followed by spinning or bootcamp classes at the gym. Needless to say, I'm away from home quite a bit these days. That's why days like today (thank you, Mr. President), are pretty nice.

The wedding planning has been moving along. We're now about three months from the big day. We haven't rented anything yet, but we've sure talked about it. I went to look at dresses today, but when you're looking for a pretty casual wedding dress, the pickins' are slim. That's okay though, I'm determined. Oh, and if any of you out there have suggestions, I'm all open. Seriously, I'm looking for anything...not necessarily white, could be multicolored, has to be tea length.

My goal for Weight Watchers by the wedding? Lose the poundage I've put back on since school started. I want to go on my honeymoon confident that I can get in the pool and look good. Swimsuits are my downfall. I think the same is probably true with most women, but I've never felt confident in a swimsuit. This summer was the first time I didn't feel horrible, but my goal is to feel good. Not great. I think I'll probably never feel that way (that's just how I am), but I could definitely deal with good! Feeling good would make me really excited to take a cruise through Mexico next summer. Ever been? I'm researching it for E and I and I'm excited!

I've decided to begin a different blog (which I'll link to here when I get it up) for book reviews. That way my students can read reviews (and maybe post their own?) so they can better decide what they'd like to read. I think it'll be fun! And it'll keep me reading.

Currently Reading: 10th grade Research Reports (oh yeah!)
Today's Mileage: 3.5 miles on the treadmill