Things of Interest this New Years Eve – 2010 edition

1. Blizzards are no match for Misty the CR-V.  Snow, wind, white out conditions, ice, road closures – none of those can stop her.  

2. Marshmallows, when heated, can stick to your butt.

3. Not everyone respects Tanya Becker of Physique 57 the way I do.  However, they pushed through and feel accomplished this New Years Eve.

4. Yes, it IS necessary that you have to drive to Happy Harry’s Bottle Shop in a blizzard for more booze – even when you aren’t even out of booze.
 

5. The neighbor across the street has no snow blower.  This provides endless entertainment.

6. These chocolate covered graham crackers are DIVINE!

7. Missing Contigo water bottle – FOUND!

8. The snow drifts outside are bigger than me.  And everyone else here.  9. The elderly apparently need round the clock care and all of Kelli’s co-workers are slackers who are full of lame excuses.  I mean, WE drove in the blizzard in the DARK.  Who can’t make a 1pm shift during the LULL of the storm?  We miss Kelli!

10. Gma Kim and Gpa Danny crack under the pressure of driving in a blizzard.  Clearly, they don’t drive a CR-V. 

11.  Babies are strangely bendy.
12. I must make MANY mochatinis to make the cost of the booze worth it in Eric’s eyes.  So far, 0 have been made – but that’s about to CHANGE.
13. Dylan’s dirty underwear can be turned into a fun game. 

14. The Wikoff family is extremely musically gifted. 
  15. Babies cannot be trusted in bathrooms.
16. Fat Tire is a big hit with the people. 
17.  Avery is TUTE (cute) with her hairs did.

18. Vegan appetizers can be un-veganized with the help of cream cheese and sour cream
19. My husband is very, very strange.  But people seem to like it.

20.  Last minute goals are better than no goals at all.  Ask us how we feel on December 31st 2011, though. 
21.  I’m kinda mad that Avery’s new PJ’s didn’t come with a mask like Addi’s did.
22. Jillian Michaels reminds us that, “there is no Cheeto tree.”

23. Battle of the Sexes is a subpar game.

24. The next 40 minutes better go quickly.  I’m about to bail.  Like my husband, who bailed at 10pm. 

25. 30 seconds after I typed #24, Ryan Schroeder bailed and went to bed.  He stole my idea!

26.  Grandpa Danny navigates the Droid (bag phone) quite well for a beginner!
27.  We’ve declared it the New Year at 11:41pm.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

I’m out!

Best of 2010

I thought I would round out 2010 with a lovely photo montage of our best moments from this past year.  For some reason, WLR isn’t letting me display the pictures one by one like I normally do (too many pictures, perhaps??) so there will be no commentary on them.  Bummer, I know!  So you’ll have to imagine what I would say about each picture.  Enjoy!

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One Year

Its hard to believe that one year ago I looked like this:

And as of today (nearly 295 workouts later) I look like this:

I pretty much owe all of this to barre workouts and consistency (along with a fairly clean diet – can you believe I didn’t have any sweets for like 2 months straight?! Egads!).  My goal this year was 250 workouts and when I hit that, I obviously just kept going and was hoping to hit 300.  I ended up getting struck down by sickness in October and November and had to take a week off.  So there went my 300!  Oh well! Next year, right?

My latest love in my barre obsession is the new Physique 57 Volume 2 set.  It just came out this month and already I’m obsessed with it, much like I was when I first got the Volume 1 set.  I did the first set religiously for a few months before I moved on to other barre work and am coming full circle now to end this year.  I couldn’t be happier with the results this type of training has given me.  I lost nearly 30 pounds, many, many inches, 4 clothing sizes and gained incredible lower and upper body strength.  I was a dancer growing up and I don’t think my legs were ever as strong then as they are now.  And I think my abs are the best they’ve ever looked! (Please ignore the stretch marks, obviously I have given birth to 2 children! )

  I know I’m going to be barraged with questions on which workouts I did.  I reviewed a few on this blog (click on the “Fitness Friday” link) but for the most part, the workouts that came up again and again on my fitness log are: Physique 57, Bar Method (Change Your Body, Accelerated and the new (and their most awesome-est!) Dancer’s Body, Ellen Barrett’s Studio Series, Ballet Body by Leah Sarago (LOVE) and some Pure Barre.  I think my favorite one from this year is a tie between the new Physique 57 set and Ballet Body by Leah Sarago downloads.  Both are definitely advanced barre workouts and just what I love in terms of intensity and also variety.  For a beginner just starting barre, I would recommend any of the Bar Method’s DVDs.  And for those who live in a big city, look to see if there is a Bar Method near you.  I went to 2 classes at the Bar Method Portland and they were phenomenal!  Hard, but phenomenal!  And for the one lucky friend of mine who lives in NYC – if you don’t go to Physique 57 and humor me – we can’t be friends anymore!   I also have a friend in Los Angeles (Physique 57’s other studio), so you are being summoned to go as well!   I must live vicariously through those who CAN go until I am lucky enough to visit one of the studios in person myself!

 

As for 2011, I hope to reach 300 workouts and continue to inspire and motivate you all to get your fitness on and be as healthy as you can be!  I also plan to revive my Shuttercal with 365 days of food.  Not every photo will be of something fancy or healthy, but I figured since I DO cook nearly every day and also take a picture of the food I make almost everyday – that this would be the perfect time to resurrect our Shuttercal calendar.  And don’t worry, Grandparents – the photos CAN be of the little people eating said food.  So there will be pics of the kids too! 

 

That’s all for now.  For those who were like, “Crap! Another Fitness post!” – I will probably do a fun “best of 2010” post sometime in the next couple of days.  Be excited!

An Aberdeen Christmas

  Sigh, another Christmas Day has come and gone.  It goes almost as fast as when I was a kid but not quite.  I’m sure the kids thought it went fast though.  Its always kind of a bummer (whether you are a kid or not) when Christmas is over because what is the next thing we have to look forward to (besides our vacay in February! Yay!)?  Valentine’s Day?  I think not!  I’m talking about about SUMMER people!  Only 5 more months! 6 if we’re unlucky!

Anyway, back to today.  Kids got up around 6:15 (not an unusual time, I might add) and we tromped down the stairs to see what Santa had left.  And then it was present time.  Avos was an old pro this year!

This was one of Dylan’s favorite gifts – from Uncle Tommy.

He also really liked this one from Uncle Jon and Aunt Renae.  He said, “Ooooooh I like this one!”

Avery got a couple of new babies and put Grandpa in charge of freeing them from their boxes.  She even screamed at him when he didn’t do it fast enough.  Just a loud shriek to let him know she meant business! Controlled chaos… Taco Jon always has to have some sort of pose!  

Here I am opening a special gift from my mom.

My Grandma’s prized Schlitz earrings!  I see these babies making A LOT of appearances this summer!  Oh yeah!  Hopefully by then Avery has gotten over the urge to try and yank on them.  My ears!  

Renae helping Daniel with something…probably one of the toys with endless unnecessary toy restraints.  I think twisty ties are enough of a theft deterrent.  Adding screws to the mix….not cool.  ??

? LOL!

Avery spent a lot of the day with this face on: (not feeling well and lack of sleep)

My favorite gift – a new Lululemon hoodie!

My niece Natalie lookin’ stylin’ in one of my old hair bows.  Glad it could live on! (Lord knows Avery won’t be wearing it!  

Another day of dueling cameras!

Fascinating, indeed.

Tommy did not expect anyone would really get him this shirt when he put it on his unofficial list.

Do you think she can do it??? Our gift to Natalie – a super sweet guitar.  Jon told us we were evil and Dylan heard him.  Dylan then gave him a mean glare and said, “I’m mad at you!”  Awesome!

As usual, Jon thinks he has the last gift of the year.  And as usual, our Mom pulls out an extra gift for herself that she has accidently “forgot” about and steals Jon’s title.  

The boys have really been playing together nicely this time.  

Avos marched to the beat of her own drum. And had a good time of it too! T

he kids minus Avery (duh) went outside for a little while too.  Everyone got good exercise, so that’s good.  

And then they watched Beauty and the Beast before bed.

Minus Avos.  

Well, that’s a wrap on Christmas 2010 Aberdeen style!  We’re off to watch Get Him to the Greek!!

Merry Christmas!