Twihard with a Vengeance

Posted in CJ, Friends and Fun by teamtradermom

Hi. My name is Sarah and I’m a Twihard.

I loved the Twilight books and I love the movies. Some may say the movies are cheesy/poorly done/poorly acted. To those people I say “phooey”. They may not win Academy Awards but they’re fun and a good escape for 2 hours.

Why do I like them so much? They have everything! In the words of grandpa from The Princess Bride (another fav movie), “Are you kidding? Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles!” Not to mention vampires, werewolves, and high school angst – oh my!

I know these books were written for teens but let’s face it, there’s still a teenage girl alive and rampant inside every grown woman. That’s the side of us that gossips, feels insecure and gets nervous around cute boys. I read through all 4 books over a 4 week period during my pregnancy with Isabella. Basically my butt didn’t leave the couch for that month except to go to work. And I read them over lunch breaks at work too. They sucked me in big time and I love every minute of it.

Now to another important point. I’m on Team Jacob. Even before seeing Taylor Lautner I liked Jacob more the Edward (and Taylor only confirms my allegiance – have ya seen him without his shirt? HELLO!!). Jacob is kind and loyal and warm . Edward is bossy and moody and cold. Classic werewolf vs. vampire I suppose. Plus I’m a dog person so when it comes right down to it, I’ll pick the werewolf every time.

Last night CJ and I went to see Breaking Dawn part 1. I was so excited all day for it! Breaking Dawn was my least favorite book of the series but I had heard the movie was the best so far. I was ready to find out!

Movie time was 7:30 and we had no idea what kind of crowds there might be so we grabbed a quick dinner and headed over there around 6:30. I had purchased our tickets online so that we could walk right up to the ticket taker and not wait in line at the front. The guy told me the theatre wasn’t open yet and that we’d have to get in line. He pointed to a roped off area behind me and guess what – we were the first ones there!

But it didn’t take long for the line to form behind us. We had to wait about 30 minutes before they opened the doors. We passed the time talking to the people around us. Turns out they are from Tekamah, NE which is where CJ lived for about 7 years as a kid. They knew a lot of the same people and it was fun to catch up on how old friends are doing. Finally they let us in and we ran to get our prime viewing spot – middle of the very back row! Perfect!

(By the way, did you notice that only one side of my glasses has a slight glare on it? That’s because there is no lens on the right side. It fell out weeks ago due to a crack in the frame and I haven’t gone in to get new ones yet. Yes, I’m cheap. And a procrastinator. So I just wear them with only one lens. Is that redneck?)

(Oh and that “beauty mark” next to my right lip is not a mole – it’s my Cindy Crawford zit. *sigh*)

The movie was awesome. The special effects were better in this one than the others. They’ve gotten much improved at the werewolf transformation and fight scenes. There were several parts that gave me goose bumps (CJ too!) and they ended it just the right way. I had heard some people weren’t happy with the ending but I thought it was perfect.

Now I have to wait a year before the next one! Torture!

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18Nov2011

Puberty

Posted in Health and Weightloss by teamtradermom

I was under the impression that the embarrassments and awkward moments that come with the teenage years, end when you reach adulthood. Things like your body changing in ways you don’t understand, saying stupid things to boys that you berate yourself for later, dealing with cliques and popularity contests and of course, acne.

Turns out they don’t.

You get to deal with the strange bodily things if you get pregnant and when you start aging. Things don’t work the way they used to and other parts move around. Hair that was straight becomes curly. And you find hairs in places you never did before.

You also never stop saying stupid things to boys. You just stop caring. It’s called marriage. The beautiful part is that when you say something stupid, your husband will just tell you it’s dumb so that you don’t have to worry about it for days/weeks/months at a time.

And those cliques? They never go away either. They exist in every work place and every organization. But again, you stop caring as much the older you get. You recognize them for what they are and learn how to deal.

As for the acne – I’ve had my up and down moments with that. Never had issues with zits in high school or college. Was blessed with perfect skin and unicorns dancing in my backyard. Then I went out in the real world and all hell broke loose on my face. After months of trying everything under the sun to figure it out, I finally found a solution that cleared it back up and the unicorns appeared once again.

And now it’s back.

No one told me that turning 35 in your adult years was akin to turning 13 as a kid. Suddenly I have zits appearing in all kinds of weird places. Found one inside my ear. Had another one on the bridge of my nose in between my eyes. Was blessed with a Rudolph style one on the tip of my nose and now I have one on the corner of my mouth, just above my lips.

So I look like Cindy Crawford, only if her mole was a big red zit.

(source)

And they have all been the painful red ones that hurt like a bitch!

Really universe? What did I ever do to you?

I’ve been trying to figure out what could be causing it. Could it be from sweating so much during my morning torture sessions, er, workouts? I suppose but I always go right home and take a shower afterwards. Could it be my diet? Probably not since I haven’t changed the way I eat. Could it be the new house? Maybe though that seems unlikely.

Regardless, the important part is dealing with them so they don’t ruin your whole day (or outfit). In a panic last week, when the Rudolph one started to appear, I Googled how to stop zits before they erupt (in other words when you know one is lingering under the surface because you can feel it but don’t want it to pop through the skin). There were all kinds of home remedies but the one that made the most sense to me was to apply Neosporin to it (and it was something I already had at home). The theory is that a clogged pore gets red and sore because it’s infected. So by applying a topical antibiotic, you are getting rid of the infection and the pimple will go away.

So I tried it.

And it worked! That pesky red nose never did appear! While that wouldn’t make for a good Christmas story, it did provide a happy ending to me! Worked on a couple other ones too but not the Cindy Zit. That one is in full swing.

Stupid aging.

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From the Mouths of Babes

Posted in From the Mouths of Babes by teamtradermom

After taking the exercise mat out from under the bed, I asked Isabella if she was going to do yoga. Her response:

“No I can’t! Save it for tomorrow!”

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16Nov2011

Kosama

Posted in Health and Weightloss by teamtradermom

I am exactly at the halfway point of my 4 week membership to Kosama (a boot camp fitness center). Good news is they haven’t killed me yet. Bad news is that I hurt all over.

Let’s back up.

At our old house, I worked out in our basement either doing DVDs, the elliptical machine or workouts that I’d pull out of magazines. Or if the weather was nice, I’d go outside and run/walk with Samson.

Well at the new house, things haven’t exactly been conducive to formal exercising. Our basement is pretty much being used for storage and so the elliptical is shoved in the corner, the DVDs are buried in a box somewhere and right now it’s too cold to go outside. So I needed something else.

I had heard about Kosama and other boot camp programs on the radio and such, and they sounded great, but hadn’t really investigated them seriously. Then one morning I saw that Living Social was having a deal: pay $40 and get 4 weeks of unlimited classes, a t-shirt, pre and post fitness assessment, yoga mat and kickboxing gloves. Seemed pretty good but I wanted to do my research first. Turns out, a normal 8 week session is $350. I’d say $40 was a pretty good deal!

So I jumped on it and enrolled in the November session.

On 10/30, I went for my pre-fitness assessment. They took measurements, weighed us, determined body fat, took before pictures and put us through the paces on various fitness tests (push ups, crunches, wall squats, pull ups, flexibility, and planks). It was all recorded and saved so that when we do the post-fitness assessment, we can see what progress we’ve made.

The very first class was plyometrics. Now, I consider myself to be pretty fit. As previously mentioned, I work out 5 days a week plus play volleyball once a week (twice a week in the summer). But I’m not going to lie to you. After the first 10 minutes of this plyo class I thought I was going to die. It was basically an hour of jumping various ways.

(source)

And the next day I was so incredibly sore. It hurt to walk. To drive. To type. To breathe.

Yet, it felt good because I knew I had done something good for my body (no pain, no gain right?).

Did I mention that I go to the 5 a.m. class? That means I’m up everyday at 4:30 a.m. and getting my ass kicked from 5-6.

What can I say, I’m a glutton for punishment.

How it works is that they rotate amongst 7 different workouts:

plyometrics
kickboxing
kettlebells
upper body
lower body
circuit
yoga

The middle 5 are mixed up every week so it’s always something different, and then Tuesday is always plyo and Saturday is always yoga. They have mercy and give you Sunday off.

Last week, Mon. – Fri. was circuit, plyo, kickboxing, circuit, kickboxing. This week was upper body, plyo, kettlebells, kickboxing, circuit. And no two routines are the same.

(source)

What can I say – it’s a great workout. I’ve pretty much accepted the fact that some part of my body will hurt for the entire month on November. I sure as hell better see some results too. And it doesn’t hurt that Jeff, the manager of the location I go to is easy on the eyes. So when I’m halfway through a minute of burpees, I can look at his bulging biceps and feel a tad better. They also have women coaches who walk around and both encourage and correct form. That part has been great because a few exercises I thought I had the form perfect on, they gave me a few tips which made it that much more effective.

The question I’ve been asked over and over is if it’s worth paying full price for. I would honestly say no. While I love being pushed and working my body in new ways everyday, I’m not sure I’d pay $175 a month for it. However, if they ever do another Living Social/Groupon type deal again, jump on it. It was definitely worth the $40.

I’ll give a full report of my before/after results at the end of the month and let you know my final reviews!

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13Nov2011

Another Day Older

Posted in Family, Friends and Fun by teamtradermom

Well, almost. My birthday is actually tomorrow, the 14th, but since it fell on a Monday this year, the celebrations have been going all weekend long.

Normally I’m not one to make a big deal of my birthday. Not because I hate getting older or anything like that. I just generally don’t like to have all the attention focused on me. But this year, for my 35th, I decided to get some girlfriends together and do it up right!

The formal plan was to meet at Cheesecake Factory for dinner around 6pm Friday night. Well some of us from work couldn’t wait that long to get our drink on, so we headed over there at about 4pm. I told the hostess when we arrived that there would be about 15 people coming at 6pm. She gave me a snotty look and said they don’t take reservations after 6. We went back and forth until finally she complied that they could have a table ready at 5:30pm. So we headed to the bar area and got foo-foo drinks and yummy appetizers (fried macaroni and cheese balls…HELLO!). It was great to unwind and have a general bitch session about work before everyone else arrived. A couple of the girls gave me my first gift – a winter survival kit – which included warm hat and gloves along with a lantern should my car break down. All very cool and super stylish.

At 5:30 I went back to the hostess station and found a different gal there. She said the table was all ready but they couldn’t seat us until most of the party was there. We had 6 so far, which wasn’t enough by Cheesecake Factory standards. Really? So, we kept waiting and drinking in the bar. Finally there were enough of us that we could be seated. That whole ordeal was kind of a pain in the ass but it all worked out.

Dinner was yummy and of course we all had to order cheesecake. I wish I had thought to get a group picture of everyone but I didn’t. Oh well.

Most of the group headed out around 8 except for a few of us who were wanting to go out. We decided to venture to Two Fine Irishmen, a local restaurant/bar that has live music on Friday and Saturday nights. On my way I got a text from CJ to get bananas before I came home. The question was, do I stop before or after the bar? Clearly, the right answer was, before the bar. So I swung by Hy-Vee to grab a bunch. Wouldn’t you know, I got a couple compliments on my couch coat while there! It never fails – every time I wear it I get a compliment. Winning!

Finally I got to the bar and the 3 of us ( me and my 2 friends ) grabbed a table and drinks.

Turned out, one of the most interesting parts of the night was going to the restroom. Each time any one of us would go, we’d hear something crazy in there. First, it was a gal offering $10 to anyone with a piece of gum because she wanted to kiss a guy she’d just met. Then, it was one girl complimenting another gal on her “beautiful boobies”. Another time it was some gals discussing a threesome. Entertainment for hours I tell you!

We also had another source of entertainment. This guy:

He was some dude (never even got his name) that was trolling around trying to pick up chicks. He bought us each a drink and loitered at our table even though we clearly didn’t want him there. At one point, desperate for conversation, I asked him what he did for a living. He told me he was a graphic artist. That was my major in college! I told him. He stuttered then and said, “OK fine, I sell toner cartridges for printers.” Um, that’s not a graphic artist dude. Then when I told him what I did he muttered something about that being impressive and sauntered off to talk to someone else.

But he didn’t give up so easily. Anytime we went out on the dance floor he’d come over and dance with, er, near us.

I think he was harmless enough, just annoying. Never the less, the 3 of us had a great time dancing, people watching and messing with Printer Boy. We called it a night around 12:30 am. That’s a late night for me and I was ready for bed. Not to mention my ears were ringing.

Boy do I sound old.

Today was the family birthday celebration. We always (well, since I’ve been an adult) combine my dad and my parties because our special days are only 4 days apart. We went out to lunch and then back to my parent’s house for gifts and cake.