touareg and peppermint mocha

This rainy weather, darkened living room, and the sight of my hubby catching up on sleep on the couch with Jax right beside him makes me want to curl up and fall asleep. I really really need to peel myself off the couch and put away laundry and pack us for this weekend though. Bummer!

This morning, I had coffee with a good friend from nursing school. It was fantastic to catch up.  Everytime we see each other, it's like no time has passed.  I got to see her new car as well...she got in a horrible accident a couple weeks ago and had her 2 week old car totaled by some idiot.  Luckily, everything worked out with insurance and she was able to get another car.  It was so cute! It is a Volkswagon Tiguan and I really like it! I have also seen the Volkswagon Touareg on the roads and I am in love with that as well. I am really itching for a new car lately.  We don't really need one, I just really want one.  I'd love to finally have an SUV.  Not a big one, just a medium sized one :). I have always been in love with the Nissan Murano, although I like the ones that are like 2-3 years old more than the brand new one.  I also love the Touareg like I said and there a few SUVs by Hyundai and Toyota like I like too.  I will just keep my list running until we are ready for a new car.

Then, I went to our bank to get some accounts switched around.  They just started charging us a monthly fee for a couple of our accounts so I had to do some switch-a-roos so we don't get those fees.  Unfortunately for me, the guy must have been new because I was there for an hour.  I get really uptight about wasting time so I was definitely on edge towards the end.  I think the thought of still having to go to Marsh was closing in.  I have started to not love grocery shopping. I always find myself stressed when I'm there (and mildly embarrassed because of all of the comments I get about my over-flowing cart, big bill and following huge savings, and my need for a helper out to my car because I have 2 carts of bags). They could always stack, but I think the baggers enjoy helping people out so he always makes it 2 carts. I really only go shopping every 2 weeks or so, so that is why my cart is over-flowing.  I just don't like the funny looks. Plus, we don't even have kids yet! I can't imagine it then.  I had gotten to the chip aisle when I started getting really jittery and light-headed...I think my Peppermint Mocha sugar crash had set in.  Then, I completely skipped all the frozen food to get home to eat.  Oh well.

Ok, now I really need to get up and get moving.  Wait, first I should check out Pinterest before I get up :)

:(

This morning I got a very shocking email from the Lifestyle Family Fitness corporate office and from my group fitness manager...

  On November 30th, LFF will be no more.  2 of the 3 clubs will be taken over by Life Time Fitness and the other one (closest to our house) will be closed for good.  

The most depressing part-Life Time Fitness does not and has not ever had Les Mills group fitness classes. Les Mills is the company who sponsors classes such as BodyPump, BodyCombat, BodyAttack, CxWorx and so many more.  These are the group fitness classes I started out in and that have changed my life.  I am certified to teach and have been teaching BodyPump for months now and I can't imagine not doing it.  I have told Matt so many times how happy it makes me to teach and everyone knows how much I love attending all the other classes.  It makes my day.  I live for it.  It's what I look forward to.  And now it's gone.

All of the group fitness instructors who teach are now out of jobs.  Since Life Time does not have Les Mills classes, we can not teach.  The club must be certified with Les Mills and Life Time is not.  I don't know what is going to happen. I'd love to think that there will be so much of an uproar from instructors and members that they will have no choice but to buy the Les Mills certification, but my gut says no.  They have come this far without it, and are even buying out other clubs-why would they pay even more money to add classes that they are seemingly fine without now.

I am angry. Sad. Hurt. Devastated. 

recruiting

Have I ever said how much I love working out? Well, I do.  And lately, I've loved it even more because I have recruited some peeps to group fitness :). The greatest joy I get from teaching BodyPump is seeing people challenge themselves and their fitness. I love when new people come to class (and then get hooked and keep coming back) and I love when regulars challenge themselves and do more than they think they can.  I love seeing people make the choice to get healthier, fitter, and happier and I love that I can be a small part of that.

First and foremost (and the one I'm most proud of) is my hubby.  He has always been off and on with his work out regimen, but lately he's been a rockstar.  I love when we can go to the gym together and even more so when we can take a class together. He had been doing BodyPump randomly, but never on a schedule.  I had also been trying for like a year to get him to try another class at the gym called BodyCombat (martial arts inspired) which he always politely refused.  Well, last week started his new journey with group fitness.  He joined me at the evening Combat class last week and then did 2 other classes that week.  He's already done 3 classes this week and is even joining me tonight where I am subbing Pump. I love it! I have been waiting for him to see what group fitness does for you and for him to fall in love with it.  I won't say we are there yet (to the "falling in love with it" part), but either way I am so proud of him! Keep it up love!

My mom joined Matt and I at the last launch we had for BodyPump and ended up loving it and has now joined a gym back home and regularly goes to BodyPump now.  Love!

A friend from work came to my class last week (which I always love) and within a couple days had switched her gym membership to LFF so she could attend the classes!  Love!

I have another lady from work who asked if she could try my class on Monday...of course! Love!

Any more takers? :)

projects

We are back at it with the projects.  Matt has been busy this past week and weekend doing some more upgrades at the house.  He installed the new fan in our master bedroom (which he had to get up into the attic and admitted to almost falling through the ceiling) and installed two new lights in the downstairs and upstairs hallways.  No more shiny gold and weird glass lights.  Now they look awesome! He also went to Lowe's and got a new light for the living room. We've been struggling with not having enough light in here, but with the addition of a light to the fan and a new lamp I think we've got it! I think he's most excited about the awesome dimmer switch you use to turn on the new lamp :).  Matt also took the ugly fan out of the kitchen and put up a new awesome looking light! The only lights left to fix are to install new ones in the spare bedroom and the office.  There are currently no lights in either room at all so this will make a huge difference.  Matt will have to run new wiring to each room to get a light in there.  We will see how that goes...

My current project is working on a photo collage for a wall in the living room. I've gathered up frames and pictures and they are currently laying on the floor while I blog...yeah I'm getting pretty far on it ha! I went to Michael's today looking for a cool looking "D" for the collage.  They only had wooden and white ones.  SO I bought a white one and some craft paint and I am going to either paint it: 1. Glitter 2. Purple 3. Turquoise.  I don't know what has gotten into me.  We will see how it turns out.

I taught BodyPump this morning and was joined by two special guests...Matt made it after he got off work and my friend Amber from the NICU came too! I think I've convinced her (or she's convinced herself) to get a membership at LFF :).  I made the mistake of waiting until last night after I got off work to learn the release I did today.  Let's just say "only EIGHT pushups" turned into like 15 pushups :). Whoops! 

My friend Abby is coming back to the Midwest from California on Friday! I pick up from the airport on Friday after work. I am excited to spend some time with her.  This whole distance thing is for the birds.

aye matey

Aye Matey! We spent the Halloween weekend up in Lafayette with family and friends. We headed up and stopped by Matt's mom's, my mom's (where we were entertained with my niece's choreographed dance haha), and then made our way to dinner at Outback with our friends Lauren and J Dan.  It was so awesome getting to spend time with them at dinner. It seemed like it had been way too long since we all got to hang out.  There are always lots of laughs when we all get together. After dinner, we went to a Halloween party at Troy and Ashley's house! We got all dressed up at pirates which was hilarious.  Matt was loving being a pirate :)

On Sunday, we went over to the Hills' to visit with Matt, Ashley, and Madi! Madi gets cuter every single time I see her.  She always has new tricks (ok not tricks, but you know what I mean) and milestones she is hitting.  I love it. She is the sweetest baby girl.  

On our way out of town, we stopped for lunch and then made a quick (yeah right) stop at Lowe's.  We have been talking about getting new ceiling fans and light fixtures for the house and I guess being so close to Lowe's sparked our motivation.  Luckily, Matt's mom met us there after she got off work because she helped pick out the new lighting system for our kitchen.  Right now we have an ugly ceiling fan and Matt is going to install a new light which will really brighten up the whole kitchen. We also grabbed a new ceiling fan (with a light) for our bedroom (the old one doesn't have a light and is stuck being turned on...no way of shutting it off), 4 lighting fixtures for the upstairs bedrooms (which do not have any kind of ceiling lighting) and 2 replacements for the hallways which are now yucky gold.  I am SO excited to see the final product.  Stay tuned for the progress!

26

Today is the 26th birthday of a very special person.

 26 things I LOVE about my amazing husband...in no particular order :)

1) you make me smile and laugh more than anyone else I know...daily occurrence

2) you are so devoted to our relationship and marriage

3) tall. dark. very handsome :)

4) I trust your opinion more than anything 

5)  I love the way you love me...I am the luckiest girl in the world

6) you can be on the same level as our nieces and nephews during playtime, but then talk theory and business with the best of them the next minute 

7) your cooking is the bomb

8) the way you look on the Harley

9) I am the most comfortable with you

10) you once told me I looked cute as I ran out of the house in workout pants, a sweatshirt, and a Purdue hat

11) you would do anything for me, your family, or your friends

12) the little things make you happy

13) you are my "Mr. Fix-It"
14) your laugh. oh I love it.  you can be laughing at the dumbest thing, but I can't help but laugh just as hard simply by hearing you
15) you are my protector. I feel so safe with you.
16) family man
17) dog whisperer...how do you do it?
18) the way you preventively hold down my arm and cautiously come close in to give me a kiss "good-bye" in the morning while I am still asleep (so I don't accidentally whack you in face or mess up your hair which seems to be the norm with me)
19) our conversations while you are talking in your sleep
20) I am so very excited to see you as a father to our children someday
21) you know me so well...like creepily well...and I love it
22) you will watch my brainless shows with me (Hello Real Housewives!)
23) you are my very best friend in the entire world
24) I know I can always depend on you for anything
25)  your surprises
26) everything...I could not ask for more :)

Happy 26th Birthday to the best husband in the world!

vanity before and after

We made a trip to Lowe's on Sunday.  Oh how I've missed that place.  We visited there at least once a week in the midst of moving/remodeling our home.  We've taken a much needed hiatus from Lowe's, but I was feeling the pull back there.  We decided to re-paint our awesome find of a vanity that has been sitting in our garage since the middle of summer.  It was back in July when we had been taking a drive in the neighborhood (mainly just to annoy my friend Abby who really wanted to just get back to the house, but when Matt is driving there is never a dull moment) and found the perfect piece.  

We had talked about buying a vanity for our bedroom for me to get ready.  I wanted a vanity with drawers all the way down the sides and a spot in the middle for me to sit.  On our casual cruise around the neighborhood, we passed a pile of furnuitre by the sidewalk in front of a neighbor's house with a "free" sign.  Amidst the rubble, I found my dream vanity.  It was perfect.  All it needed was some sanding and repainting and it would be my vanity.  We loaded it up into the back of Byron (Matt's buick) and brought it back to the house. We stuck it up against the wall and that is where is stayed...for months.

Riding home in the trunk with my beauty

Vanity before...

Matt actually brought it up this weekend.  He said we might as well wait until next Spring to re-paint it since it was starting to get cooler.    That was until Sunday rolled around and we couldn't be in the house any longer.  A trip to Lowe's and some new-found motivation brought us to this...

A little demolition to take out the middle shelf...more room for my legs

Before

We took all the shelves out, sanded them and the rest of the vanity, and then wrapped them in newspaper so we could get to work with the spray paint.

The pretty grey color

The master at work :)

he's so cute

And now for the finished product.  We carried the vanity upstairs after it dried.  We had talked about making the area an entire place for me to get ready.  Matt talked about getting a big mirror and some vanity lighting for the wall.  He even wanted to do a dimmer switch for the light so I could adjust it.  I thought it would be awhile before this all was completed.  Well, I came home from teaching my class on Monday afternoon to this...

ALL DONE!

Isn't he fantastic?! He had to get up in the attic to do some re-wiring for the light which involved disassembling the closet system (which was fixed when I got home too). All that is left to do is for me to fill the drawers, get my little mirror up on the top, hang hooks on the adjacent wall to hang my blow dryer and straightener, and get all my hairspray and other getting-ready goodies on the top.

I LOVE the way it turned out.  I spent some time looking on Pinterest (my new found obsession) searching for a good color for the vanity. It turned out exactly the way I wanted.  We may even go search for some cool knobs to put on the drawers.  Right now there is a little nook under each to open, but it will spruce it up a bit if we add knobs.  One man's trash is another's treasure!  

I am very proud that we got it done!  Go Team Dunn!