So you think you're in pretty good shape...

You realize you have some trouble spots to burn and some muscles to tone.

 But you can run a few miles in under half an hour.

You do Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred and kick her booty.

You can beat some men at a push-up competition.

You spend time at the gym doing machines and can progressively add more weight.

You think you're in pretty good shape.

And then you do Insanity.

You feel flabby in parts you never even knew you could.

Your asthma makes your lungs burn, even though you've learned very well how to keep from having an attack.

You feel pathetic for only being able to do around 50% of the entire workout.

It takes you a good hour of laying on the floor, unable to move, watching TV before you can work up the strength to get something to eat, let alone even think of the energy it would take to shower.

But it's so addicting and I feel amazing after my heart rate has recovered and my lungs stop feeling as though someone poured acid into them and filled them with three pounds of gravel (lovely, huh?).

 I'm going to try my hardest to stick with it.

Wish me luck... I'll need it.

And for those that may be interested, these are my numbers from the first Fit Test:

Switch Kicks: 40

Power Jacks: 40

Power Knees: 67

Power Jumps: 30

Globe Jumps: 5

Suicide Jumps: 10

Push-up Jacks: 20

Low Plank Oblique: 25

Commercials

I'm not a big TV watcher, and even so, the shows I do watch are usually watched on Hulu.

But...

I somehow always seem to see the funniest commercials whenever I do happen to turn on the TV.

These ones quite literally make me laugh for a good few minutes after I watch them.

Enjoy :)

Day of Love

I actually kind of love Valentine's Day. 

What can I say, I'm a sucker for love :)
 

So here's to those people that I really, really love...

Audrey Corinne and Jaden Patrick

Sophie Jane and Samuel Jeffrey

My lovely sisters, Alanna and Jennifer

 My brother in laws, Brian and Eric

and my wonderful parents

 

  

I love my family so much and I'm so thankful for all ten of them in my life!

I also can't wait for a few more additions sometime down the road... :)

(hint hint...)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Miss Bonney Carter

So Facebook has this kinda neat feature where you can see your friendship with one of your Facebook Friends.

I got to thinkin, "Hm, I wonder how many random posts my best friend Bonney and I have posted on each other's walls..."

So I headed on over to our "friendship" page, and holy guacamole, I forgot how much I love that girl.

We're kind of the coolest people I've ever known.

 I'm also incredibly homesick for my best friend!

So, BCarter, it's time for a serious kypse session.

Maybe a girls night complete with ice cream and watching Bride Wars at the same time :)

 It's been way too long since we saw each other, and that is totally unacceptable!

Here's the plan.... we drop out of school and open a bakery/wedding planning business.

Our big promotion could be free cupcakes for your wedding if you choose us as your wedding planners!

 Oooh, I like it.

Miss you, girl.

The grass doesn't always have to be greener on the other side

   There's a reason adults tell children and teens to enjoy their childhood, not to grow up so fast, and that they'll miss the years they're rushing to get through. As adults we sometimes mourn for those wonderful days full of building forts, riding bikes, girls nights, football games, and our seemingly end-of-the-world break up with our boyfriend of three weeks.

When we were in it, we hated it.

     Now that we realize how easy and carefree it was (for the most part), we miss it.

We mourn it.

   Growing up hurts. It's painful, difficult, eye-opening and sometimes downright brutal. We learn the tricks of the trade - the way the real world really works...

Decisions never end.

Risks have to be taken.

The responsibilities are endless.

Your body won't let you sleep past nine o'clock.

No one works to protect you, you have to protect yourself.

Most people are more concerned with their own self-interests.

   These lessons are realized experience after experience, mistake after mistake, and triumph after triumph. It's hard, yet it's beautiful. The thing is, that's just the way it works. No matter how hard we try, every eight-year-old, every teenager, every recent high school graduate is going to wish the same thing - to just grow up.

Innocence and ignorance.

That's the simple beauty of it.

   As hard, painful, difficult, eye-opening and brutal as it may be, something wonderful happens as we all go through it. We come to find out who we are, who we want to be, what we stand for, and who stands for us. I wouldn't trade it for anything, not even the hide-and-seek, all-nighters, or senior-skip days. We have the power and agency to live a life full of the things that make us happy, forts and college-junior-skip-days included. No matter what decisions we're facing, what risks we're taking, what responsibilities are weighing us down, how tired we are at eight o'clock on a Friday night, how exposed we feel, and how wronged we have been, we learn how to live a truly beautiful life.

We make the moments that in turn make us.

   We're in control of our happiness. We come to realize that making the most of every decision, every responsibility, every risk, every hardship, and every day is how we come to know happiness. The key to our outlook on life lies within ourselves.

We must simply be content.

Private Practice

I used to watch Grey's Anatomy, but it got old.

After the fifth or sixth season I was just so over it.

I mean, trust me, I get it, it's television so of course it's unrealistic.

But that unrealistic?

So I decided to give Private Practice a shot, and I love it. 

Love, love, love it.

Here's why:

1. I love all things pregnancy, babies, childbirth, fertility, and so on.

I'm weird, you don't have to tell me twice. But I just really love it all, and eventually that's what I want to do with my career, so there ya have it.

2. It's much more realistic. Sure, a day in the life of a medical office most likely does not play out like half of the days on the show, but compared to Grey's Anatomy it's a breath of fresh air.

3. I don't end each episode feeling depressed.

Grey's had a way of doing that.

Private Practice isn't as serious and there isn't some big traumatic event at the end of every season (or even every episode...)

4. Tim Daly.

Yep, he's 56 years old but he so does not look it.

5. I'll be honest, I wish I looked like Kate Walsh.

I'm on season two and I hope it stays this good.

I also hope I can make it to the end without any of it being spoiled.

I guess that's what happens when you start watching a TV show the same year the final season ended :)

 

My brain on painkillers

One of my biggest fears is putting on slippers (with bare feet) and a spider being in there.

Healthy habits are so expensive. I have to fork out the money for floss and toothpaste, simply because I am OCD about it and I can't fall asleep without flossing and I can't leave the house without brushing.

The greatest invention in the world would be a standing bathtub. Picture a standalone shower, but with bathtub-like walls all around, and you have to climb up a ladder to get in or something. I don't know, I don't have all the details worked out, I just know it would be amazing. I don't like my bare bum sitting on the bottom of a bathtub.

Plain potato chips dipped in mustard is a sure way to satisfy one of my salty cravings.

Chocolate covered macadamia nuts make me swoon. Sometimes I look up how expensive flights to Hawaii are just so I could get some of the best in the world.

Painkillers have adverse effects on me. Hence this random blog post and wanting to go to bed at 6:00 in the evening. It's also messing with my gym schedule and my appetite. Who would voluntarily take these things?! On a side note, ultrasounds are kinda fun. Maybe I'll become an Ultrasound Tech. Or a Dental Hygienist. The possibilities are endless!

I really love herbal tea, especially when I get to drink it out of this super cute mug my sister got me from Anthropologie.

 

Happy Tuesday!

 

For Times of Trouble

  Thank goodness I have the Gospel in my life to cling to when the waters get rough. I finally put forth the money to buy a book I've been wanting for a little while. I've spent an entire day reading it and watching segments from the accompanying DVD. To say the least, it's kept me sane and kept me focused on the fact that this isn't the end of the world. 

Life moves on. I'll move on, too. It means a new job, it may mean a new major, and maybe even a new school. That's the beauty of life. Time moves on and drags you along with it. You may as well make the most of it, because the time will pass either way.

"One of the unfailing facts of mortal life is the recurring presence of trouble... When these difficult days (and nights!) come - and they will - it will help us to remember that 'it must needs be,' that in the grand councils of heaven before the world was, we agreed to such a time of challenge and refinement. We were taught then that facing, resolving, and enduring troublesome times was the price we would pay for progress. And we were committed to progress eternally." 

"An old Baptist preacher told me once in a BYU meeting I was in with him, he said, 'What I've learned in this life is we can all have what we want, or something better.' I think that's the way God sees it. The only time you wouldn't get what you want, is if He has something better, and as a good parent, would overrule for your good."

 "First of all, foremost, you will not be tested, you will not be tried, you will not be pushed beyond your ability to withstand and endure and prevail. Now that's a promise, it's God's promise, so I just work here. You won't be pushed beyond hope, you won't be pushed beyond faith, you won't be pushed beyond what the future has in store for you."

 For Times of Trouble - Jeffrey R. Holland

"My convictions and my feelings for the Savior of the world have been born in the most desperate hours of my life, when I wondered whether the sun would ever come up again. It seemed to come up for other people, it seemed to come up every morning for everybody else I could see, but not for me. Now it isn't always like that and it's not supposed to always be like that, and we're a little self-pitying if we act like it's always like that, but some parts of the discipleship require that walk, basically His walk."