Jordan and Sage

Went to the park today with my family and took some pictures of my nephew Jordan and my niece Sage. They were really fun to play with and super good sports about taking all those pictures :)

(There's so many, I don't want to put them in the right order... so they're sort of mixed up.)

Jordan was really into his surprise face :) He's actually pretty good at it.

Sage wanted to do it too.

Haha, I didn't notice this before, but it kind of looks like he's flipping us off! He was looking at a rock, actually.

He really wanted me to take this picture. We even tried twice :)

I gave her my necklace to wear.

Jordan was pretty good at hanging upside down. I got him to go with no hands, just hooked by his knees, on the monkey bars--he was pretty brave, considering it was his first time.

There's a bunch more, but these will do for now :)

They Just Grow Up So Darn Fast

I found out I probably wasn't supposed to plant so many seeds in one pot... It looks like I may have multiple trees growing. That means I might have to prune some of them out :( It kind of makes me sad thinking that I might have to end one of their little lives. My little trees have worked so hard to live. I hope soon I can let them move in with their decorative rocks.

Rearranging

I got some awesome $1 candles at Maceys and I wanted to rearrange my stuff to go with our new shelves/bookcase thingy. Here's what I settled on, but it took me a few tries to find the accent that Trevor and I both like. I was trying to incorporate some of those techniques you always hear about with threes, words, and triangles. Who knows if it actually worked--I just like it. Maybe that means it worked...

(soon those movies will be hidden, that will be nice)

I tried this too. I like this second best. I'll probably go back to this once our blossoms die. They look like they won't last more than a couple of days :( sad.

This was the first vase I tried. I like it, but I didn't like having two of the same vase on the shelf.

Yo-Bunches

All I can say is yum.

Yoplait has a new flavor--blackberry pomegranate. AND I discovered 4 ounce yogurts instead of the usual 6 or 7. They always seem like too much to me. And, if you can believe it, on top of ALL that, I also discovered Honey Bunches of Oats Just Bunches!

Seriously, try it. It's okay because that YoPlus stuff is good for you :)

Getting Used to Working Out

Week 3 almost done! After tonight, I will have been exercising for 3 weeks, and I feel pretty good. Last week I only got 3 of the 4 days in because on Wednesday we were down to one car. I have the feeling that Wednesdays are going to be the rough days for me because that's Trevor's day off, and he usually doesn't go to practice till 6:30 or 7, and that's RIGHT when I exercise. So I have to sort of CHOOSE exercise over seeing Trevor for the only hour I'll see him that day. But last night he didn't go to practice so I didn't have to worry about that.

I'm still feeling pretty motivated. I know this might sound sort of absurd, but I'm sort of sad I'm not seeing any results yet. In the beginning I told myself I probably wouldn't see ANY change at all for at least 1 or 2 months--but somehow I still find myself with a small bit of my hopes let down that I haven't lost a couple pounds or my clothes fit better or something. If anything, I feel fatter--my body is SWOLLEN! I know it's a good thing to have muscles forming again under all my skin, but my arms and legs just look puffier! Bah! Right now my body is still getting used to the work out so I'm still pretty exhausted at night. Come 9 o'clock, I'm dead, sprawled out on our bed, begging Trevor to rub my muscles. I've been focusing on my stretches afterwards more so my muscles will be less tight and sore, but they still get tired.

Some days I've been super excited to go work out after work, and others it's just been part of what happens after work. Just routine. I think I've only had maybe 1 or 2 days where I've been NOT in the mood--but as soon as I got there, I felt better. Haha, kind of like church.

This week my right knee and muscles above my knee have been sore. Some of you know, but I have a history of bad-knee-edness. I had a scope on my left knee when I was 15 when I was playing basketball all the time, and it sort of runs in my family to have torn cartilage. Anywho, I've just been a little worried that I might damage my other knee like the first knee. I've been feeling some pain in the muscles AROUND my right knee, but I'm pretty sure it's nothing in the bone. So I've been working those muscles a little bit more carefully to build them up. When I had the surgery on the left knee, they told me that as I strengthen the muscles around my knee, the bone and cartilage will have more support and will hurt less. I'm hoping that's the case now.

Enough about that.

The Living Planet Aquarium

Trevor and I went to The Living Planet Aquarium again this weekend. This is my third time, and I still love it. They've added a new section since the last time I went about the Amazon.

These giant sucker fish were in the Utah section. They're probably 6-8 inches long. Kinda weird.

Here's one of the eels. They're super long, you just can't see because he's all wrapped up in the coral.

Some of the long jelly fish. They take the best pictures!


These are some of the shorter jelly fish.

Here's a picture of the giant squid. You aren't allowed to use your flash on him because of his sensitive eyes, so the pictures really dark. But he's HUMONGO! Each of those circle suckers is about an inch or an inch and a half wide.

Here's the giant lobster. He's flash sensitive too. I think he was about 3 feet long.

One of the sleeping sea horses.

A few of the many many fancy fish we saw.

Sting ray! If you've never been to the aquarium, you can touch these guys as they swim by. Pretty nifty.

Shark! They have some really awesome sharks and dangerous fish there. This guy was like 4 feet long I think.

Here's a video of the shark and eel tank.

Hard to get a good picture of him, but there was a giant eel. His face was just pokin' out, but he looked to be about six inches thick.

Tropical fish in the pirate ship.

These were called 4 eyed fish. Their eyes have a film that splits them in to so that they can be part way above and under the water at the same time.

Sea turtles. They were climbing on eachother. They were pretty medium in size. 2 feet or so.

They had an electric eel section in the Amazon zone. They had a gage that tells you how electric he is at the moment. You could tell when he was just resting, when he was hunting, and when he was seeking a predator. Eels can emit the same amount of electricity as 6 electrical outlets at once! Um, yeah, pretty sure they could kill you.

Here's a video of some big fish they have there. It's amazing that fish can be so big, and these are SMALL compared to what's out there in the ocean.

This is the tree frog. He's all suctioned to the glass. Looks pretty gross.I never knew they could do that.

Here's one of the cooler looking poisonous frogs. I don't think I knew this before, that poisonous frogs aren't poisonous on their own. They eat other poisonous creatures and absorb their venom and poison into their skin. If you keep one of these kinds of frogs in captivity long enough, they'll lose their poisonous skin.

This is me, excited to be at the aquarium.

This is Trevor. Also excited to be at the aquarium.

You should go there if you can :) http://www.thelivingplanet.com/

Blossoms, IKEA, and Cricut Project

Alright, so a couple things really fast before I forget to blog them.

Trevor and I got a new shelf for our living room. We spent like 3 hours at IKEA walking through the showroom and ended up picking out the stuff we actually bought when we got to the self service part. Totally, NOT how you're supposed to shop at IKEA. We're really happy with our new shelf. Trevor picked out the basket drawers, and I like it a lot. Bad picture, sorry. We also got a smaller computer desk so we have some more space in our living room. Trevor's ginormo TV takes up so much space, that you can't even see any wall space at all. And since getting rid of the TV is completely out of the question (unless I want to see Trevor have a nervous breakdown), we had to decrease the size of our other furniture. No picture, but it's a cool desk.

My sister-in-law, Constance, asked me to help her use my new Cricut to make some words for their entry way. Haha, they crack me up :)

I LOVE spring! The trees in our complex are all blossomy so I took some branches and put them in a vase on my table. I want to get some more before they go away!

Spilling the Beans

Alright, I can't keep it in any longer. I have this crazy desire to just puke out all my thoughts--so here we go.

I have been working out all week.

I know that sounds like a silly thing to want to keep secret, but I just couldn't say it out loud. I've been having such conflicting feelings about working out for SO long, I've just put it off and put it off. And honestly, I just never felt emotionally ready to commit. Whenever I used to think about exercising at the gym or something, I could never imagine myself getting more fit. I WANTED to be more fit, but I just couldn't see it happpening. And I didn't want to fail, and I wanted to focus on other goals. Maybe those sound like excuses to everyone else, but for me, this has been an extremely emotional process.

A couple of weeks ago I was feeling just like I said, like I just wasn't ready to put so much energy into something I couldn't even see myself being successful at, and something I wasn't sure I was wanting for the right reasons. But then 2 weeks ago, something just changed. I'd like to think it was all my mini-prayers I think in my head all the time, haha--for sure. But SOMETHING just made me stop and think--hm, yeah, okay, I can see me succeeding, so maybe I should try. Then VOILA! I saw that Curves was having their annual deal where they waive their $150 start-up fee if you donate a bag of groceries. Seriously, thank heavens! Because I have always hated the gym. I've tried Gold's Gym, local rec centers, the college gym, working out at home... and they all just BOTHER me. Going to the gym is just SO not inviting, and they're mostly full of people who are already fit. My face has and always will go the deepest shade of red you've ever seen when I exercise--it's just a part of me. That's not exactly a welcome fact when you're trying lift 50 pounds less than the guy working out next to you. I tried Curves with my mom when I was about 15 and I really enjoyed the atmosphere, so I decided I should give it a try again.

On Monday I made myself go to get the information I needed to start. I had to just stop thinking about all the details so I could let myself drive there and not turn around. That night when I got home I wrote in my journal about my plan--thinking that writing it down would just help me sort out all the details. My plan is to go right after work Monday through Thursday--that way I don't make it home and change my mind :) So next I wrote my weight loss goal down, and all of a sudden, I just started CRYING! AH! What the crap?! I guess I had a lot of emotion all gummed up inside of me that just needed to come out :S It was weird. I felt happy and scared and yet finally like I had a chance of getting to the physical place I want to be--and thus, in the emotional state that I want to be.

I've been really internal about all of this--which is super odd for me. I always tell Trevor everything I'm doing and most of what I'm thinking. But I didn't even tell him I was going to set things up at Curves. I think it's better for me to be as independent as possible about this. I need to not depend on ANYONE--even Trevor--to keep me motivated. Actually, just from past experience, I think I'd prefer if Trevor didn't really say ANYTHING about me going :) That might sound weird, but I want this to be about me. That's hard to say. But I don't do too many things just about me. I don't want it to be about the way Trevor wants me to be--I need it to only be about the way I want myself to be.

So, this week I met my goal of going every day after work. I know I said I wasn't going to say anything until after a week, and it's only been 4 days. But today I realized that I'd already met my goal for the week, so it would be okay to spill the beans. Haha, I say that like you've all been so anxious to hear a great surprise :) But I mean that it was me who was anxious to spill the beans.

And it has turned out that this week was the worst possible week for me to start. Which actually makes it even cooler that I actually finished! We started the week out with a messy kitchen--which is never a good sign. I usually try to clean it up all the way on the weekend so I don't have as much work to do on the weeknights. But no. I think it was because Trevor was SUPER sick, and I wasn't feeling that well either. Tuesday and Thursday I had relief society stuff, and Trevor worked late practically every day. Hopefully it can only go up-hill from here :) Or at least not down-hill.

I really enjoy the routine they have at Curves. For anyone who doesn't know, they recommend you go 3 times a week for 30 minutes each time. They have their machines set up in a circle, alternating between workout machine and a pad for exercising in place. You spend 30 seconds at each station and make the circuit twice which equals 30 minutes. I love LOVE it because you don't have to sit at one machine and do 50 reps for 10 minutes, and you don't have to run on a treadmill for 30 minutes. The point is to keep your heart rate high enough the whole time and work out your whole body. And FOR SURE it does. I don't think I've EVER been able to work out so much of my body at a time before.

Anyways. So now you know. Seems like working out is something that a lot of people just DO, and they have it engrained into their routine and their minds so it's just normal for them. But not for me, no sir. How do YOU GUYS exercise? How do you find time? How did you come to get used to doing it all the time? Interesting to know...

Thanks for listening :) Feels good to get it out.

Hm...

Ugh, man, so I want to write about my newest goal, but I'm afraid if I write it to all of you it'll be that much worse if I don't do it--and it's still pretty early to be so excited... I mean, it's only been two days.

But it feels pretty cool to have so much motivation--it's been a while since I WANTED to do it. So. I guess that is all. I'll consider divulging all the details when I make it a week.