Yeah, about that...

I am left alone for the weekend again. Carter and Graham went down to Portland for his brother's baby blessing this morning, but I had to work today and tomorrow. So, I'm bored and watching Hulu all by myself tonight, and I felt inspired to blog.

I guess I feel like I don't really have much to blog about, just some random things. So, I'll do one of my old-fashioned mind dumps.

1) We just got back from a road trip to my hometown in California. It's about 800 miles to my parent's house, so we drove through the night on the way there so Carter would sleep through the night.  We listened to an audiobook of Divergent on the way down while he slept. It worked out really well, but neither Graham nor I slept very well in the car. We were BEAT when we got to their house. Let's just say I slept very well the whole time we were there because I was making up for the lack of sleep. We didn't do anything big, we just played in the pool (my mom got Carter shark fin floaties--he loved them and swam all over the pool in them), played with cousins, and shopped a little bit (I found an awesome swim cover-up dress from Athleta). Can I just mention really quick how great Carter was? Seriously, this kid is such a blessing. He's so easygoing and mild-mannered, and yet adorable and hilarious. He was amazing on the drive home (he only slept for a little bit on the way). He had a little LeapFrog reader, some trucks, and some other random toys, but he mostly sat there in silence, looking at the window. He didn't complain and only had to go potty quickly once. I guess this means we can take more road trips if he's going to be so awesome!

2) Speaking of swim dresses.. Guess who's going to Hawaii in October?? We are! My parents have a timeshare on Oahu, and we are going for a full week with them and my sister. We are so excited. We haven't been on a real vacation since our honeymoon to Kauai in 2008. But now, Graham will probably have to work Thanksgiving in exchange for not working a full week in October.

3) I hosted a girl's night a couple of weeks ago with some friends. We were trying to think of ideas, including going shopping, hiking, eating at the Melting Pot, mani/pedis, etc, and I volunteered to host a fondue night to save money. Not thinking it all the way through, I chose to make a traditional Swiss fondue (with a white wine base). I only realized this mistake when the ladies asked me for the recipe. Number one ooops: I didn't ask if they'd be ok with having white wine base (we're all Mormon and don't drink alcohol). The cheese fondues at Melting Pot all have an alcoholic beverage in it, so I didn't think anything of it. Number two ooops: one of my friends is pregnant and shouldn't consume alcohol (the alcohol doesn't all cook out, sorry). Yeah, I felt like an idiot...

4) I am really loving my barre-style workouts right now. I downloaded the Barre3 app on my phone for like $5, and they have free 10-minute workout videos available on the app. I've been picking and choosing different little sections for do a 60-70 minute workout, and it's been nice to kind of switch up the routine a little bit.

5) Work is going to be kind of crazy this summer. First of all,one of my co-workers is getting married and got another job in Seattle. Friday was her last day. Ordinarily, it wouldn't be too terrible, but my other co-worker is on vacation this next week. So, I will be working by myself for 4 days next week. Super excited. Plus, our hospital is getting a new electronic medical record system in like 3 weeks. so, double suck. Short staffed and new system=recipe for disaster. But, the silver lining is that I don't have to work any more weekends this summer unless I get called in. Woohoo!

6) Some newer beauty products I've tried is a men's shaving cream from Sephora and a body wash gel from LUSH. The shaving cream is the bomb. I mean seriously, Graham's face stays soft for 2 days when he uses it, when normally his beard is all scratchy by the end of day 1. So, I had to try it myself, and it works wonders on me too! This means less shaving, softer skin, and less overall product used. The body wash I got is in a citrus scent and it really helps wake me up and feel fresh in the morning. I would highly recommend it, but my favorite one is still Foam Call wash from Sephora. That one is my favorite scent ever and I feel like it's really moisturizing.

7) My mom totally spoiled me when I visited her. She surprised me with eyelash extensions! They're a little more fragile than the ones I got for my 30th birthday, but they're lovely. I'll have to take a picture and post it on Instagram.

8) Carter's personality is really like a mini-me. He's kind of a contrarian sometimes and likes to argue just to go against the flow. For example, I would not wear flip flops in high school because everybody else did, and everyone wore the ones from Old Navy. I think I got a pair from J.Crew literally the week after I graduated. Anyways, my mom was talking to Carter about making good choices in life and to CTR ("choose the right" she explained), when he responded with "No, I C-L. I Choose the Left." He really is clever, that one.

Anyways, we don't have anything really planned over the next month, so who knows what the heck I'll blog about. I mean, I shouldn't complain about my life not being eventful. I've definitely had enough fodder over the past year to keep my blog entries plentiful.

Fitness Progress

So, I blogged about my new plan for fitness starting in the end of February. My plan was to do advanced Bar Method DVD's 3 times per week, along with 2-3 sessions of other workouts (I do RIPPED workouts at the local Y). I really wanted to see if I could sculpt my body like Bar Method claims it can.

It hasn't been easy to commit to this workout plan for the past 3 months, due to changes in schedule, family visits, out of town weekends, etc, but I completed my number one goal: do the Bar Method workouts at least three times per week. I had some major bumps along the way. I got a new birth control method that gave me severe headaches for a week. So bad that I actually cried through my workouts because the pain at my temples was so terrible. Then, I was severely dizzy for the next 3 weeks. I tried to fight through it, mostly working out like I planned, but my intensity wasn't there. So, I stopped the birth control and I'm mostly back to normal, but I've lost some progress from not being able to work out as hard.

Also, my nutrition has kind of sucked. I've been addicted to sugar, requiring dessert almost every day. The dizziness made me lay on the couch and eat way too much. So, my waist line has hardly improved.. There was some initial improvement after 2 months, but not so much this last month. I did take before pictures, but I'll wait to post them after 6 months or something because I'm just not feeling it right now.

However, I have noticed a lot of positive improvements:
--My muscle tone and shape.. my thighs, hips, and arms have never felt so good. I'm kind of obsessed. My booty is totally lifted. My triceps are tight and muscular. My legs are actually shapely (not that they were a big problem before). Some of these improvements won't show so much on the camera, but I feel them for sure. One problem is that I definitely still have some meat on my bones, especially in the shoulder and rib cage area.. so muscle definition is not quite there.
--Fitness improvement. My push-up ability has vastly improved. Doing slow push-ups eliminates momentum, so it's all you and your muscles. I can actually do tricep push-ups now too!
--More focus on my posture. I shrug my shoulders really bad, and it causes some major knots in my shoulders, so this should help after a long time of practice.
--Feeling more feminine. I love the shape my muscles are taking. It's not manly to be lean and toned.. I like to look graceful!
--Confidence. Because of some of the changes in my body, I'm feeling more confident about myself.

Anyways, I am a believer in this workout method! I did try a couple of other barre-style workouts as well: Physique57 and Barre3. P57 was intense, but I didn't think it had enough stretching. Barre3 was kind of a sneaky one because I didn't think it was very intense while I was doing it (although it did make me sweat), but I was definitely sore afterwards. All 3 of these workouts have online videos, so check them out if you're interested! One negative I do find is that some of my pants are a little tighter in the legs and the booty than they used to be, so I'll have to find a cut that fits me better now. But, if I have to sacrifice some of my old jeans for a new, lifted butt, I'll do it..