Awards!

Last September I received a blogging award from one of my favorite bloggers, Callie at Through Clouded Glass. LAST SEPTEMBER. And I didn't do a thing about it. Then, in February, my very best good friend, Kat at The Good Life, gave me a blogger award. And I didn't acknowledge that one either. THEN, just yesterday, Callie gave me ANOTHER award, because she is too sweet like that.

Seriously you guys. I don't deserve these awards. I'm the worst blogger ever, not only because I so rarely blog, but because you gave me these awards and I forgot about them! I don't even think I said "thanks"!

So here they are, all in one post:


The Sunshine Award


The Fabulous Blog award


The Beautiful Blogger award

I have to pass on the Sunshine award to six other bloggers, the Fabulous Blog award to five other bloggers, and the Beautiful Blogger award to seven other bloggers. Also, for the Fabulous award, I have to list five current obsessions. For the Beautiful Blogger award, I have to list seven facts about myself.

So here we go.

Five Current Obsessions:

1. The band Muse. I can't get enough of them. I'm listening to them right now. I don't know why I love them so much. I think it's because every single song is epic. I love to lose myself in the awesomeness. My favorite song by them is Starlight.

2. Working out. But you already know that. I'm actually going out for drinks with a few girls from the gym tonight. I'm a little nervous, because I don't know any of them very well, but that's partly what this night is for!

3. Eating real food. But you also already knew that. Here is a recipe for Paleo Butternut Squash soup. I'm hoping to do this with yams as well.

4. Politics. I don't talk about it very much here, mostly because it doesn't seem like the right place for it. But I try my best to keep up on what's going on with our government, and I have very strong opinions about it all. And when I talk about it, I get so worked up that my words come out rather harshly. And though I care very deeply about it all, I also don't want to lose the few readers I have just because I can't find a calm way to write about it.

5. Dresses. I don't own very many, and I almost never have an occasion to wear a dress, but I love them, and I wish I had the kind of life where I had to wear dresses every day. I particularly like this one.

Maybe for Art's work Christmas banquet next year?


Okay, now for Seven Facts About Me:

1. I am exactly 5 feet tall. I managed to achieve this impressive height back in 8th grade, and I haven't moved up or down since.

2. Like my height, my shoe size is 5. It's difficult to find shoes, because almost all women's shoes start in size 6. In some cases I can get away with a 5.5. I'm actually looking for a minimal shoe that I can both run in and lift weights in, and the one I want comes in 5.5, but not 5. So I'm crossing my fingers.

3. I don't like the movie The Brave Little Toaster. I only thought of it because Art is watching it right now. I saw it when I was a child and I thought it was sad and scary. I'm sure I can handle it now, since I'm 24 and all, but I just refuse to watch it.

4. My hair is about 15 inches long from root to tip. I haven't had hair this long since........I can't even remember.

5. I LOVE county music. My two favorites are Brad Paisley and Little Big Town. I love Brad because his light-hearted songs are funny, and his love songs are sweet (and not overly mushy). Little Big Town has the greatest harmonies. The summer Art and I got married, they played an outdoor show at a county fair close to here, and we got to see them. That was a really fun newlywed evening.

6. I never paint my finger nails. It doesn't seem worth the effort, because I mess it up, and then it chips off right away, from dish washing and all that. But I'm always inspecting them and pulling out an emery board to keep them smooth and even and neat-looking.

7. I have really exciting news that I'm dying to tell you all, but I can't yet, because it's not official till Monday, and this needs to go through the proper channels. I can't risk certain people finding out over the internet. Boy, I sure know how to end things on a cliffhanger, don't I? ;)

And since I can't think of 18 bloggers to pass these awards on to, I'm going to give all three of them to my dear sister, Elleah at Moments to Cherish. She and her husband have created the two cutest kids on the planet. I talked to her on the phone last weekend, and I had the immense pleasure and privilege of hearing Blake laugh, and hearing Kiera sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.




Yes, I think the mother of these two precious ones deserves these three awards, and so much more.

This, That, and The Other Thing

It's seriously 18 minutes till bedtime, but I'm going to try my hardest to smash out a quick post, because it's about time!

Let's see: the weather has been more sunny and warm as of late, so we have been doing some very very very very long overdue yard work. I'm honestly surprised that our landlord didn't slap us with a hefty fine, because our lawn needed mowing a month ago. It got done late last week.

I did a little weeding on Sunday, which my already-not-awesome shoulders didn't appreciate, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I like weeding. It's like cleaning, but outside. And I ended up letting my mind wander into some pretty deep thoughts, along the lines of how weeds are an analogy of my spiritual state (and not in the obvious way).

Anyway, the weeds are gone, which makes me happy, but the empty patch of dirt almost looks worse. And no, I'm not going to plant anything, mostly because I don't trust the children and pets that live right around here. We have enough trouble with cats as it is. And since we won't be staying beyond July of this year, I can't bear the thought of some college kids moving in here and letting my pretty flowers die. So I'll just keep weeding.

Speaking of my sore shoulders, my workouts at the gym are going to look a lot different for at least the next four weeks. Apparently many people at the gym are experiencing shoulder issues, so our head coach came up with a plan to help our shoulders recover, so that we can a) avoid injury, and b) eventually get stronger. Because if you are trying to push or pull weight around on weak/sore shoulders, your not going to see any improvements. You're just going to make things worse.

To clarify, I am not injured. I am trying to avoid injury. So I'm barely going to be even lifting my arms above my head for the next month or so. I CAN, but Coach wants us to get into the habit of "shoulders back and down". And I want the soreness and tightness to go away. In the meantime, my core and legs are going to be getting a lot stronger, because I'll be replacing any shoulder work with something core-intensive or leg-intensive.

Changing the subject: I'm doing training again at work. 3 new people started yesterday, and they are the last to be hired for our department for the busy season. I really like them, and they are catching on quickly, which makes my job a whole lot easier. We are having company-wide issues with new people logging into their computers, so that kind of sucks, but we're making due. I just have them take turns sitting at my computer, and they do the work/watch each other do the work, and I supervise and coach them along. This works quite well, but eventually they need to be at their own desks, or else I won't get any of my own work done! So I'm praying that the issues get figured out quickly.

Finally, the markets opened up a couple of weeks ago, and I'm LOVING it. There's a public market that's open every Saturday morning, and there are all sorts of local vendors, selling food and produce and clothing and pottery and lots of other stuff. We saw a booth featuring bison jerky and bison sausages, so we bought a big fat sausage, and Art cooked it for dinner on Sunday. It was delicious! I love bison.

We also bought homemade Chai from one of Art's friends. He hasn't even opened it yet, and it's just sitting on our counter, but every once in a while I get a whiff of it, and I'm in heaven. I'm thinking of buying a smaller one to put in the guest bedroom. It makes a wonderful air freshener.

Also, there's a market-type "store" not far from our house that sells fresh produce from March till November. We loaded up on all sorts of vegetables, and we only paid $20! Squash and yams and broccoli and cauliflower and apples and oranges and avocados and asparagus, and a coconut. For little more than $20. And yeah, a coconut. I'm not entirely sure what to do with it, but I'm just excited that we have one.

I think it's so funny and amazing that I get excited about fresh vegetables now. I used to hate vegetables! But no longer. Now I think of all the new ones I want to try, and I think of fun recipes so I can make them taste delicious. Eating real food is so much more interesting than most people realize.

Also, kale chips are delicious.

Okay, it's past my bedtime, and I need my sleep (because great fitness required even greater recovery). So you all have a good rest of the week, and you should also try spaghetti squash. It's delicious and versatile. C'mon. Just try it. I dare you.

CrossFit Throwdown

So we had this competition at the gym a few weeks back. A couple of people took pictures, and put them on the internet, free for the taking. Here are the ones of me.


This first workout was a 60m run and chest-to-overhead lift, every minute, on the minute, for 8 minutes. Each successful lift was 1 point, and the goal was max points in 8 minutes. The head poking in from the right was my score keeper, and also a huge source of encouragement. He was loud, and in my face, and it was exactly what I needed.




The prescribed weight for this workout is 100lbs, but I scaled it down to 35lbs. I know the bar looks big, but I promise you guys that ALL OF YOU could lift that weight above your head, at least once. If you have arms and legs, and if those arms and legs work, and if 35lbs is less than 1/3rd of your body weight, you could lift it. I did so on my very first day at the gym.


Me jumping the bar up.


I have no idea if the bar is going up or coming down in this picture, but at least I got my face out of the way. That's important.


After I jumped the bar up, I caught it in a 2-inch squat. It's called a Push Jerk. And it helps to get the bar all the way overhead, especially when you're tired. Which I was.






Second workout of the day: 3 attempts to get my 5-rep max of deadlift. My former 5-rep max was 95lbs. I was looking to beat that by at least 10lbs.

I love this picture of me, and I'm not really sure why. I think it's because of my form. Form is SO IMPORTANT when weightlifting. You want to take your time and make sure that each little thing is just right. This prevents injury, and promotes proper strength-building.


Check out the grip. It's called the neutral grip. When that weight gets really heavy, this helps to keep the bar from slipping out of your hands.


I am literally yelling in this picture. This is the heaviest deadlift I've ever done. 115lbs. That's more than my body weight. So I set a major personal record, and I'm really proud of myself.


Last workout of the day: 4 stations, 1 minute at each station, and 1 minute of rest in between each round. 3 rounds. A total of 12 minutes of work. Which isn't long, but this workout is meant to max you out, and then some. It's called Fight Gone Bad, and for good reason.


That thing I'm holding is a kettlebell, and the lift I was doing is a high pull. Basically, you violently jerk the weight up from the floor to your chin. The power should come from the hips. I was very tired at this point, and high pulls just killed me. I hated them.


This is called wall balls. It's a weighted medicine ball, and you have to squat with it, and toss it up 9 feet to a target that's on the wall. Again, the power is generated from the hips as you jump up from the squat. Tossing 10lbs that high in the air sucks. Having it hit you in the face on the way down also sucks.


Row machine. We had to row for calories. Again, for this workout, each rep was 1 point (or in this case, each calorie was 1 point). We were going for max points. The only picture I don't have is one of me doing box jumps, which was also part of this workout.

Here are my numbers:
1st Workout: I got 77 points, which means I lifted 35lbs over my head 77 times in 8 minutes. Knowing that rocks my world.
2nd Workout: 115lbs, lifted from the floor, 5 times.
3rd Workout: 181 points, which means I did 181 reps of various things in 12 minutes.


This is me, an hour or so after it was all said and done. I felt amazing. A few days later my muscles were killing me, but it was so worth it.

Can I ask one thing of you guys? Can I ask you not to say "I could never do that"? You never know what you are capable of doing until you try. I had no idea I was capable of doing all that in one day. I've also built up to it. I couldn't have done all that on my first day there. But when I did the competition, I had been there less than two months. I'm not doing the impossible.

We have grandmas and grandpas working out there. We've got kids who CrossFit. Pregnant moms. People of all ages, from all walks of life. And every workout is scaled to where ever they are at. Plus, there is so much encouragement from our coaches, and from all the people working out. It makes everyone want to do more than they think they can. And then we surprise ourselves, because we really did it!

And you can too. Okay, enough lecturing from me. I hope you enjoyed all the pictures lately! It's been too long...