Ode to kickboxing

 

Let me tell you about my first experience back kickboxing. My first experience with kickboxing will be saved for another day. Today I will tell you about the first day back, after two.long.years. 

I went kickboxing then there was throw up (don't stop reading I will keep it clean, even for those who are light on the stomach). 

A week ago I decided that it was time to take the plunge and head back to kick boxing. I planned to go to the place that  I have been to in the past. I had til 7 to get myself geared up for the 90 minute intense work out. Before then, my nephew stopped by to see if he could get a quick haircut. Good thing I called the place because they changed their schedule. It was just after 5 that night. I did a quick search and found one other place near me that had a class at 6. I told myself that I was going to go no matter what. So I told my my nephew that if he wanted a hair cut he had to endure the painful (now) 60 minute work out. 

"I'm a tough football player and I run 18 miles everyday."

30 minutes later we were at the gym in our work out gear, pulling out the punch bags, gearing up for what was to come. First an 8 minute warm up without the bag. side step, punch, upper cut, jab, front kick and side kicks. A nice warm up and also very informative for those who have never tried kick boxing. 8 Minutes in, we then move to the bag. There is no way my nephew was going to let his 'old' aunt out do him that hasnt been to a gym in 2 years. He stepped up his game. I stepped up my game. Upper cut!

15 minutes later, now 23 minutes in, I take off my gloves to grab my water. It is alot harder than I remember. I am sweating like a pig. I stink like one too. 

Side kick!

I quickly put back on my gloves and start back in. My legs are going to kill me tomorrow, I just know it. Now we are 30 minutes in. I can see my nephew starting to slow down. I remind him 'tough football player huh? Not so tough when it comes to this work out.' I am so surprised that I am nearly keeping up with him and he is wearing down faster than me. 

Knee Jab!

We are now 32 minutes in to the work out, sweat covering bother of our bodies. He picks it up. I pick it up. I cant believe that I am working this hard. I told myself that I would take it easy. This is my first time back and I want to be able to walk the next day. Not waddle. Walk.

Jab!

35 minutes in I tell myself 'only 15 more minutes until cool down, I can do this.' but I was really thinking, 'I am going to pass out!' I can feel the slow burn up my legs. I can feel muscles that I don't think I have felt in 2 years. My body is falling in to old habits  of the familiar routines. I need water. By this time I am a bottle of water down with the second one open. I hear 'dont get water logged.' but I know my body and I know that if I don't drink alot of water I would be dehydrated. 

Front kick!

45 minutes in my body is screaming. Screaming from the pain but screaming in joy from feeling good. I am almost done. I can do this. Every minute that passes I keep telling myself that I am doing it. I am back in the game. 

Side step.

50 minutes in it is time for cool down. This is the easy part. Unless I ended up on the floor, then I knew I would be in trouble. I had a small glimpse of what the next day was going to be like at about minute 41. It was going to be ugly, but I had done it! With a few stretches we were out of there. 

Breath innnnnnnn and outtttttt.

59 minutes. the class is over. It was time to put back the bags and the floor mats and clean up the room for the other class. I down my second bottle of water. I could smell myself. You know it is bad when you can smell yourself. That is when it all unfolded. We walked outside and my nephew sat down on the bench to catch his breath. I walked to the end of the sidewalk where my car had been parked 68 minutes earlier. I unlock my door, put the key in the ignition, backed out and drove up to where my nephew sat on the bench. He saw me and got up to get in the car. We drove less than 10 feet when I had to come to a complete stop. My passenger side door flew open and I hear heaving. 

"I'm a tough football player!"

And you all thought it was me. It is official. His old aunt kicked his butt.

*** My nephew shall remain nameless. I wasn't going to post this but he started telling people so I thought it was only fair.

On a side note my comments are now blocked until my approval. Any comment you would like to make but not be published, wont. Now everyone can comment without everyone reading what you write. 

Lab rat 111

Well, there isn't much to really blog about in thewinter. It kinda sucks that I have yet to take 1 picture in this new year. We don't do much around here besides watch movies, when I am not working. I hate this winter bog that seems to hang around for months on end. I really hate the 3 months after Christmas. Not because I love all of the holidays but because of the there-is-nothing-to-do months. So lately, sad to say, there is really nothing new to blog about around here. There has been one thing that I have been meaning to blog about but it hasn't seemed real so I haven't said much about it to anyone. Now is a better time than awkward silence around the blog.

For the last 6 years I have worked for a company, which shall remain nameless, in the same job. My job title was known as receptionist. ok I hate that term. I sound like the only thing I do is answer phones. My job was anything but just answering phones. ok, so I was a secretary. That term too I hate. The first part of  secretary is secret. that is a secretaries job. Keep things on the down low - or keep secrets. Yes, I had lots of things that I had to keep to myself or I would lose my job but when I hear secretary I think of a person who is keeping secrets about management. Dirty secrets. Embezzlement, affairs, bad bad secrets. That was not my job. Those are not the secrets I had. Far from it. I don't want to be tied to something that shouted negative. So maybe I was payroll. Ok that makes me sound like I am higher up, management. There were two sides of our payroll. I did the lesser part of it. I had no say in pay rate, raises, incentives, bonus. I just made sure everyone was doing what they were suppose to be doing at the time they were doing it. Someone else (management) just made sure the payroll company got the information to pay each employee.

So what was I? I wasn't Just a receptionist. I hated being called a secretary. I sounded like I made alot more money when I said payroll, yet I did all of those things that would describe each of those words. On my last review it asked me what my position was. My answer: Gopher. I go for anything that they ask. I did everything and anything they asked, and I got it done in the time they told me it needed to be done. Sounds ridiculous but it is the only thing I can describe my job. Gopher. So fitting. Last year we had an incident at one of our branches. It was extremely difficult for me to deal with. It happen on a Saturday morning. I found out that day and I cried the entire weekend. One of our employees took it upon himself to go into the office and kill one of our girls. He then drove hours away and took his own life. That day is the day that I was no longer a gopher. I became a hysterical mouse. I describe myself as that because when I was little my friend has a baby mouse. It started off playing in the cute little wheel running itself in the same spot. As it grew it because smarter and would try to find a way through the mazed tunnels that my friend had built up. Eventually I would go to my friends house to hear that the mouse had died. It had escaped while she was at school, it became bored and would find a way to get out of its cage, which would ultimately lead to its untimely deal by getting caught somewhere, usually the furnace.

At that point in my life I became that mouse. I was hysterically running up against the wall, hoping the faster I move my 4 legs the higher the chance I would have of escaping this horrific nightmare. I have said it before and I will say it again, this incident hit too close to home for reasons that I cant explain on this blog. It was a fight for me to get out of the job I was in. It was a fight to change what had happened. The wheel that I had been running on for over 5 years became too much, and I needed a change. At that point I became the hysterical mouse squeaking for a change, a change that i would not let go of, even if there wasn't room for a change. I went to the extreme of searching out new jobs. I was told as my current job to be patient. Patients runs thin. I was not blessed with patients. Nothing seem to fit and in January I think I hit my brick wall. It was now or never. It had been an uphill fight of horrible thoughts for 8 long, very long, months. Since January, they have had plans to move jobs around, but only small things change. It sucked but I knew the changes were coming. 5 weeks of me training other people from all sort of departments and branches the full change finally happened.

I am an accountant!

Bryce always said I was a sexy secretary but I think accountant sounds so much sexier. I never dreamed of being and accountant, as a matter of fact when they mentioned it in high school I cringed when they would say 'well you can be an accountant.'. Well here I am 10 years later and instead of cringing I stand proud. I sound smart and sophisticated, and IMPORTANT! I think this is as far as I will go in my career, but you never know. Maybe someone will see my potential and make me a manager. Me? In control? I laugh! I am already in control. and I am so. much. happier.

Goal review

Since last year I couldn't remember last year all of the goals I made (ok only 1 of all of them I did remember), I thought I would do a quarterly update on my goals. There is alot that I want to blog about so I need to get to it. So lets get to it....
Goal #1: Weight watchers and 20 pounds lost. So far it is just a thought, but it will happen
Goal #2: Kick boxing. Haven't started yet but it is in the works of what days I am going to go and which location suites me best. I have to get through my cake class before I can commit to another class.
Goal #3: Wear make up once a week. This is one that I have already put into action and fulfilled it to the day. Yay for me!!!
Goal #4: Start 'my favorite' blog post. I havent started this yet... I tried but my phone lost all the information and I haven't had time to retype it all (dumb blogger didn't save it!) I have a list of things i wanna blog about that are my current favorite. so stay tuned!
Goal #5: Buy a new pair of shoes bi-monthly. Check and check. Jan and Feb are these little beauties.

 

 Goal #6: Try a new restaurant every month. Fail! I forgot about this one. For the month of Feb, Bryce and I went on our date night to the cracker barrel. It was a first for me and it was really good. So maybe not so much of a fail. This brings me to my last goal, our couples goal.

Couples goal: Go on a date night once a month. As I said above, we did it last month!

Stay tunes for my favorites post!

We are just weird

Two summers ago our cute little old man next door neighbor decided to put a camping trailer in his back yard outside out bedroom window. Not long after he let his son move in to that trailer for 4 months. His son tried to be respectful of our privacy. It didn't bother us much then because it was his son. It was weird, but hey it was summer. We live in our trailer during the summer too, usually surrounded by trees and giant hills. Fast forward 18 months later, it is the dead middle of winter. Cold, sometimes with snow, less daylight. One day a truck and trailer appear in front of our house. Then we start seeing boxes, garbage and a full size 5th wheel being moved to the backyard of our neighbor. Soon we start seeing lights on at night. Are they strays??? We are not for sure but we do know our neighbor very well and these are not people of relation, yet they are staying outside our bedroom window, in a trailer, in the middle of winter! Are we just weird or would that be really bothersome. Ok maybe that doesn't bother us near as bad as another trailer and truck parked right in front of our house that belongs to these people and hasn't moved not one inch since. Are we just weird or would this bother you?

Tag...?

I only do 'tags' for people I love, so here is goes. I was tagged by my friend Rie Pie, the 'eleven tag'. I wont be tagging anyone else because 1. I don't think I have 11 friends. 2. I don't think many people will read my responses and 3. because I wont :) so here we go....

Here's what I have to do:

1. Post the rules
2. Share 11 random things about myself
3. Answer the 11 questions from the post in which I was tagged
4. Create 11 new questions for my tagees to answer
5. Tag 11 people

ok 11 random things about myself.
1. currently my hair is pulled up into a ponytail, covered in 'mud' and dust from sanding because we are renovating our house, I have already taken a shower and I don't plan to wash it. why? because in 12 short hours I am going to have dust covered hair again.
2. I just finished up a couple of days training some new people at our company from one of our other branches. I have not accomplish a. single. thing. AND next week we have another girl coming from our Mexico branch to be trained by the one and only me AND it will be just in time for a new hire to start in our branch at the end of next week that I will spend the next few weeks training AND the week after we will have another girl from our elko location come to get training AND after that I will have to train our afternoon receptionist for a job she may not even be doing (I didn't know it would be a choice - but oh well) AND after that is all done I have training myself for my new job position that I finally got!!!!!! Hopefully it wont end in my exploding in a huge pile of lifelessness. (don't you just love all of my AND's)
3.I'm tired. Its only 8:28
4. I feel completely, ridiculously proud of myself that I got to drive our company vehicle for the past two days and not use my own car or gas. It is a super nice SUV. I felt like I had a huge butt.
5. since I have been driving around the SUV, it makes me want to by my own even more now then ever. I am hooked! (big butt and all!)
6. By the end of next week my house will be repainted. Just in time for pay day. Just in time to blow my entire check on house decor.
7. I am secretly anxious and overly nervous about the changes that are happening in our company. I feel like any time I walk in to work I will have a panic/anxiety attack. I am ready for it all to be over with. time capsule anyone???
8. Summer is my friend and I am keeping my fingers crossed that the lack of snow mean an early summer for me!
9. I want a spa day
10. Some days I daydream about not having a job. About staying home all day. cooking all day and just doing things I love: Paint, scrapbook, cook, photoshop and many other things. After having a week of in January I learned very quickly that I have more than enough to do to keep me busy. I thought I was going to be bored after a day or two. I kept going the entire time and even ran out of time to get everything on my list completed.
11. I want my long hair back. I want my short short hair back. Last but not least, I am completely and hopelessly indecisive!

ok now to answer the questions Rie posted:

1. What are you naturally talented at? Hair, maybe not talented, maybe just lucky :)

2. What is the most embarrassing song you have on your ipod? the one I jam out to all the time, 'white wedding' by billy idol. :)

3. What book have you read over and over? the arianna series. I can read that one over and over again. Probably the only one too.

4. Who is your hero, and why?ok I know this is super cheesy but my brothers (sometimes one more than others). Some times we fight, some time we say things we don't mean, sometimes we say super cheesy things (like this???), and sometime we say things that truly catch each of us off guard. Most of all some times we say 'I love you.' and that is all we need to say. I have 5 men in my life that I look up to. Bryce, Darrell, Rob, Will and Greg. We might not always agree but they have heart and that is all that matters to me.

5. What song represents you? there are two. both by Christina Aguilera. 'Beautiful' and 'Fighter'. I love 'beautiful' because no matter what anyone says, I am my own person. You are your worst critic and you yourself is the only one that can destroy you. I could care less what people say it is up to me to make myself what I want to be. only I can change that. The music video to this song is powerful. Some may say that it is extreme but it pretty much sums up how I feel about myself. I love fighter because it is powerful. I refuse to let anyone destroy me like whats-his-bucket did so many years ago. When I thought I could never get away from him I would listen to that song and it would give me the strength to stand up for myself. "How could this man I thought I knew turn out to be unjust so cruel. Could only see the good in you pretend not to see the truth.You tried to hide your lies, disguise yourself through living in denial. But in the end you'll see, you wont stop me!"

6. What is something that can always make you laugh? 'Friends'. Love that show. I own all of the seasons and even when I am sick I cant help but smile when I listen to their quirky ways.

7. Who do you consider your best friend? Jessica. Always has been, always will be. The missing her doesn't go away. even after nearly 11 years.

8. What would you choose for your last meal? probably pizza hut stuffed crust pizza. It is an artery clogger in itself. We have a love hate relationship. Oh and cherry coke from Big H. Don't forget a tan hot chocolate from beans and brew. For dessert, pumpkin chocolate chip anything. Yep. that is what I would have.

9. What movie makes you cry, every time? I don't think I have movies that make me cry every single time. but those dumb movies that catch me off guard and make me cry the first time I watch them. Like 'A walk to rememeber' or 'the guardian' or 'the notebook'. Dumb movies. They are only dumb because they have me cry. Otherwise I love them!

10.What advise would you give yourself if you could go back in time? Keep doing what you are doing. You have come so far in life. Keep working hard because what you have years later is amazing. Don't change anything! Those heart break moments really do pay off.

11.What question do you wish I asked, and how would you answer it? Do you wish you had a fortune telling crystal ball? my answer would be YES!!! Suspense of the next few years is killing me!!!!!!

well that is it folks, hope you enjoyed the little update on me. I promise I will stop blogging on weekends :)

Would you like some cake with that?

It is so much easier to blog on the weekends while I am 'attempting' to get things done: clean, laundry, finances, etc. The problem is, no one reads them! Oh well. The past few weeks have been extremely busy for me. I fell asleep on Thursday at 5:30 and didn't get up til the next morning. For 2 weeks straight I have been going non stop. One of the reason is because my Tuesday nights are out of the picture for the next few weeks. I have been taking cake decorating classes. Someone asked me at work yesterday, 'do you have like 5 jobs???' we both laughed. She knows I work with her, she knows I do hair, and now she knows I do cakes. She told me that I am really good at it - I feel differently. I never wanted to do this to make money but you never know when it will come in handy. I think I have done extremely well considering I like to grab a jar of store bought frosting to smother on to a cake, I have never made my own frosting until I took this class. Our first week we did cupcakes. We learned the different types of frosting, tips and how to use them to our advantage. Our second week we learned how to do roses and smooth out frosting on our cakes. The third week we learned airbrushing (Not my friend!) and put into effect the past two week in designing a cake of our choice (Tinkerbell). It has been fun, we have a few more weeks left and I am excited to see how far I progress and what i can learn. (sorry for the crappy pics, they are from my phone)

Really?

Today I was searching through pictures to find some pictures to post on facebook for my nephew. I went through all of my pictures on my laptop and decided to come down and check if Bryce's computer held more pictures that maybe I forgot about. Holy Crap! He has alot. As I was searching I found a stash of picture of the house when Bryce first purchased it. It is completely amazing to see where things have come from to where they are. I am sorry that I don't have after pics all in on file, you will have to sort through my blog. It is truly amazing. Sorry for the picture overload. We will start with the upstairs living room and work our way around. I think those who have been in my house will truly be amazed.
Living Room:

The kitchen (who decided that pee yellow was ok to put into a house??? It kinda reminds me of carpet (see below):

The purple room that wasnt so purple:

The upstairs hallway:

The most disgusting bathroom that pretty much looks the same (New toilet though. GROSS!) soon to be demolished! (Yay!!!!)

Our now bedroom/master bedroom:

Ok that is the upstairs. Let me take you on a walk down the stairs to the basement:

Now here is the basement. In all the years that this house has been a 'house', not one owner did anything to the basement. As a matter of fact, the only room existing was our old bedroom (in which someone mysteriously 'forogt' to put instillation in. yep we found that out the hard way! Now we have to tear out 2 walls when we get the rest of the house finished.) . Since the house was purchased, we moved alot of the framing that kinda sorta existed and most of the plumbing. We wanted to create our own look.
here is our old bedroom:

ok now the remainder of the basement:

Last but not least: The exterior:

Alot of the work doesn't show through the pictures. The urine stained carpets and floorboards that had to be ripped out and replaces. Our kitchen cabinets that someone sloppily painted white (the cabinets were stripped, sanded and sealed, we wanted to keep the orginals). The sprinkling system that no one took care of that was cracked and broken, left for our pleasure to rip out and restart for the beginning.
We often tell our selves there is so much to do to this house and it become exhausting, but looking back at where it used to be and looking at where it is, it doesn't seem so tedious. I am extremely grateful for my home and anyone who knows me knows I am proud of our house. I know it is an average joe house but we have put alot of work and effort in to it that makes me love our house, love what it looks like, and wants people to come see it. This was a great walk back to memory lane. Now that it is over, I must go clean my awful messy house!