10 Years in the Making

I have been waiting a very long time for this.  According to my mother, it has been 9 and half years.  It has been a tradition in our family to have our stockings either knitted for us or cross-stitched.  Specifically my mother has cross-stitched all of ours (5 kids).  With life getting in the way, it has taken my mother slightly longer to get my stocking done.  I think to help compensate she made mine far more detailed than she did the rest.  Aaaannnd I LOVE it!!!

The week before Christmas was my sister's birthday.  We got together again for her traditional Birthday Cookie Day  It's starting to become one of my favorite sister traditions.  I think my favorite part is getting to see my niece and nephew.  :)

Adorableness

Betty Crocker won't be calling me for decorating tips.

Brian and I added to our State-cation list by visiting both the history museum and the natural sciences museum.  Currently, the traveling Titanic exhibit is at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences.  When we took our first trip to the museum we went to the history museum....thinking the Titanic exhibit was there.  It is a historical event, right?  Anyway, after two hours of walking around the museum we never ran across the exhibit.  Being pressed for time, we decide we'd leave and try again another day.  As soon as we stepped out of the doors, we saw banners for the Titanic exhibit at the Natural Sciences Museum.  The Natural Sciences Museum is literally across the walkway.  We apparently were completely oblivious to ALL of the signs as we walked into the History museum.  Oh well.  It gave us an excuse to go back.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from the Titanic exhibit because it was prohibited.

Hubby loves anything military

Seems so ideal

Little bit of trivia: Pepsi was invented in NC

very symbolic, I enjoyed this part of the exhibit

only picture from the Natural Science Museum

Since the holidays are here, my Crossfit schedule has been pretty out of whack.  I'm a routine person, basically Type A personality.  Because of my busy schedule, I can only make it to Crossfit at a specific time.  That class time tends to be the one cut from the holiday schedules.  Now don't get me wrong, I quite enjoy being able to sleep in.....but I think I've begun to enjoy the sense of accomplishment in my day that I get from Crossfit.  I need to learn to appreciate each day, Crossfit or no Crossfit.  Maybe I should take up running.

I'm that girl

I think I've officially reached that stage.  I can't stop talking about Crossfit.  My sister says I'm obsessed.  I feel majority of the time that it is the best thing that I have done with my day.  I feel so accomplished and I can't deny how much I love the compliments I get from loosing all of the inches.  I literally hid the scale from myself because I swore off the idea that the scale was a definition.  I wasn't overweight when I began my Crossfit journey.  I was just out of shape.  I actually haven't taken measurements either.  I can just tell you from the clothes that I wear and the energy I have on a daily bases how much I've benefited from Crossfit.

Today's WOD (Workout of the Day) was very important to me.  I petitioned for our box to do this Hero WOD.  Hero WODs are signature workouts given specific names of service men and women who have died in combat.  Well recently a Hero WOD was floating around Facebook designed after one of the teachers killed at the Newtown, Connecticut shooting, Victoria Soto.  She was a teacher for 5 years in room 10.  She died on 12/14/12.  She was 27 years old.  Because today is Christmas Eve, normal class times were not running.  I woke up bright and early to get to the 6 AM class before work.  I was proud to see all of the people who showed up for this class.  We did 5 rounds of 10 Thrusters, 14 Box Jumps, 12 Sumo Dead-lift High Pulls, 12 Burpees and 27 Kettle bell swings.  It is workouts like this one that make me proud of the community that Crossfit inspires.  I don't have any pictures of us completing the WOD.  I have yet to get the hang of taking pictures on a regular basis, especially if I want to get serious about blogging.  But you will see some in the future, sweaty mess and all.

And just to toot my own horn, I achieved a personal record this week of 105 lbs on the Clean and Jerk.  To see an example of this I pulled a short YouTube video. Clean and Jerk demonstration.

On a slightly different note.  Merry Christmas!!  I hope everyone is having a peaceful and lovely holiday.  I'm glad to be able to spend it with my family.  So from my family to yours, here is a little holiday cheer.

Zeta Eve (named after Christmas Eve, the day we got her)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Going Forward

Starting today I am going to try my damnedest to blog more.  I feel that I have lots of things to talk about but just don't allot the time to sit down and put them into words.  I have CrossFit, my journey to eat healthier, my financial quest, and an awesome husband...and of course our beautiful pup. :)  I shouldn't have any problems putting those things into this blog.  So this starts a new chapter.  I'm going to focus on all of these wonderful things I have in my life and share them with who ever is willing to listen (read).

Leaves, Leaves and more leaves

I fear that my favorite time of the year will continually be the most labor intensive time of the year.  I love the chilly weather (the need for layers ;-)  ), holiday comfort food, family gatherings and the COLORS!  I know I'm not an outwardly girlie-girl but man! these colors awesome for my complexion and hair color.  LOL  I am more inspired to go out and about when it becomes chilly then all of the summer....maybe it's that whole awkward humidity/sweating thing that gets to me. 

The only downside to those beautiful colors is when they begin to fall.  My husband and I have been living with my sister.  One of the ways we show our appreciation is we try to help out in the yard as much as possible.  This particular weekend our father drove down with all of his nifty machines (leaf blower, chainsaw, etc.) and gave us a huge helping hand in accomplishing the yard work.  The town in which we live comes by three times during the fall and winter season to pick up any leaves raked out to the curb.  So our mission this past weekend was precisely that.

  As you can see from the car in the background, this is quite the hefty pile of leaves.  This is in fact probably 10 years worth of leaves and pine straw that has fallen in the front and back yard.  I got a little carried away with the leaf blower....three and half tanks worth of gas type of carried away.  BUT!, the yard is as clear as it has been since my sister moved into her house.  She also took four (or five, I lost count) truck loads of trees and branches to the local dump.  Finally the sun can shine through the trees!!

See the line of leaves to the left, that's where her yard ends

Zeta is surveying her playground

I think the best thing I heard once this was all done is that my sister doesn't want to do anymore yard work for the rest of this year. YEA!!  Mission accomplished.

Festivals and Frogs

Let me preface by saying that I have decided recently to do some exploring of this fabulous state I have been a part of for so long.  And I must admit that I haven't been a very good North Carolinian.  Since I can't afford to take extravagant vacations, my husband and I are taking state-cations.  So, this past Saturday was the 29th Annual Barbecue Festival in Lexington, NC.  I brought the idea up to my husband that this year we should go to the Barbecue Festival.  We've gone to the NC State Fair three or four times and all we end up doing is walking around and eating the food.  So...lets walk around and eat food somewhere else this year.  The day was beautiful, especially consider what was around the corner.  (Praying for those in the midst of the Sandy damage.  We, North Carolinians, know all too well what it's like to go through those trials).  Since the food tents were scheduled to open around 10, we decided to take our time getting to the festival. 


29th Annual Barbecue Festival

We start almost every festival with the cars.  My husband tries to contain his excitement as he drools over any car he has deemed his "dream car".  I unfortunately just can't get on the same page.  Typical husband-wife scenario.  We slowly made our way through the crowds to get our peek inside each of the tents.  I will admit that either I go to too many festivals or the slow-going trend in today's crafts has become monotonous.  I only saw a handful of tents that peaked my interest.  I was more entertained by the stores who opened their doors to the masses. It all reminds me of why I loved living in a small town growing up.  I did break down a buy a soup cup to keep at my office.  Trust me, I wanted more than the soup cup but I restrained.

On to the barbecue.  This is one area of the festival that I was more than disappointed.  This is North Carolina people! AND a barbecue festival!  My expectation was endless rival tents of 'who's BBQ is better than whos' but that was clearly not the case.  When my husband and I decided have lunch we had to walk a few blocks before we even found a tent selling barbecue.  And if I'm not mistaken there were only two tents selling barbecue and one selling only sauce.  That does not make me a proud Carolinian.  This is the state of the East vs. the West.  (For those of you wondering, I am an Eastern BBQ girl)  I knew going to this festival that it would only be West but that was okay.  I was driving to the West portion of the state to get to this festival.  I guess the only thing I can really say now is that I've scratch that event off my list of Things To Do in North Carolina.

I managed to salvage the day though.  On the way home I stopped by my sister's house to visit my AAAADORABLE niece and nephew.  Nothing can make my day better than having my niece run and jump into my arms when she sees me walk into their house.  This weekend was just before Halloween.  My niece decided she wanted to be a princess.  And let me add that her favorite color is yellow.  So you can imagine my surprise when I found out her princess dress was.....wait for it.....yellow.  The cutest part of all of this is that her younger brother (7 months old) needed a costume as well.  So my ingenious brother-in-law sewed him a frog costume to coordinate with my niece.  It's the cutest site you will see this Halloween.

Princess and the Frog

The evening ended with a bottle of wine and countless giggles with my other sister.  All in all a successful day.

As the World Turns

I'm not sure what to write anymore.  Part of the reason for starting this blog was for it to be therapeutic.  But I have a hard time wearing my heart on my sleeve.  So I avoided this place, this blog.  I'm sure I'm not alone in that defensive strategy.  I purposefully hid behind my excuse of having a second job and my excuse (which I no longer have) of working out every morning.  I just know that if I don't do something then I will begin to unravel.  So many of my goals are just beyond the finger tips but yet I feel like I'm just running in place. It's hard to stay motivated when your valuable therapy (Crossfit) is too expensive and your inexpensive therapy (wine) isn't truly therapeutic.  It's just a way of avoiding.

So here I am on a Tuesday night....avoiding.  I know what I need to do but that doesn't mean I have the fortitude to do it.  I have unfortunately found myself in a vicious cycle.  One of which that once you realize you're in it, the only person you can blame for it is yourself.  The question I must ask of myself is 'Can I break the cycle?'  Actually, that is not true.  I know I can break the cycle.  The right question is knowing if I can handle what comes after the cycle is broken.

Now that I have found the time

Don't be entirely surprised that I have been absent a few months from this blog.  Some call me crazy and others call me a workaholic but when it's proxy season, overtime is my bestest friend.  I drive a fine line between working for overtime pay and being dedicated.  I also have to remind myself that during this time I've managed to stay with my second job, as a waitress.  I think people always forget or don't realize how much energy being a waitress truly does take from you.  I'm obviously more aware of it now that I've had a desk job for more than two years.  Oh and let me tell you HOW outta shape I've managed to become.  It's quite depressing as a matter of fact.  But...I'm the only one to blame for feeling this way.  When you are young and playing sports in high school you don't realize that the structure of team and a coach is what helps keep you motivated.  Trying to get motivated or stay motivated, for me, is damn near impossible.  I've come to accept this as a flaw.


So yesterday was my birthday.  It is the first birthday I have enjoyed in a very long time.  I think it is very possible that I have come to except the coming of age.... Something else that comes with age is the onset of lovely feelings the body produces alllllll of a sudden which you are now completely and udderly aware of on a daily basis.  And on that note, that is why I FINALLY purchased a Crossfit membership.  Now don't start applauding yet because I managed to get an awesome Groupon deal (yes, I know I'm a cheapskate) but it was the exact motivation that I needed to just take the leap and go for it.  I've come to grisp with the fact that if I want to do Crossfit then it is going to cost me a pretty penny to do it.  But I need that hardcore, adrenaline, I can't move tomorrow type of motivation.  In my recent quest to better myself, inside and out, going to a Crossfit gym has been towards the bottom of the list.  I've worked for a couple of years now on my financial health, within the past few months began working on my mental/emotional health, so last but definitely not least is my physical health.  Wish me luck.

“Old age is not so bad when you consider the alternatives.”