already April?

Well, I guess I'm pretty solid at the once per month blog postings...whoops.  

I am loving this weather!  We had to wait so much longer this year for some relief from the cold and snow.  Maybe that will mean not such a ridiculously hot and drought-stricken summer? Let's hope so. We plan on continuing on with our landscaping plans for the front of the house this Spring and I hope to not have to be out there more watering everything as crazy as I had to last year.  I was so nervous our brand new trees were going to die from the lack of water.  Oddly enough, my jackpot for plants this year has been Costco! You've got to grab it while you're there though, because if you wait to buy it for a week or so it won't be there anymore.  I bought 3 azaleas and some kind of tall evergreen shrub last week and today I saw they had forsythia bushes! I've gotta get me one of those.  Matt wants to put a hitch on the Murano and get a trailer which will come in handy for getting mulch this year.  Making 2 trips and loading 12 bags of mulch into the back of the car last year was less than ideal.

We've had some great weekends with family lately.  Last weekend, we went up to Lafayette to spend Easter with Matt's family.  My mom actually came over too for lunch on Saturday which was great.  We spent Saturday eating great food, playing cards, and falling asleep on the couch watching basketball. Oh wait-that was just me :).  On Sunday, we went to church, spent some quality time with my mom, niece, and the puppy.

I've been subbing a couple extra BodyPump classes at Kiwi on Saturdays which will continue through most of the summer.  It's fun to teach to a class with other "regulars" that aren't usually at my Monday and Thursday morning classes.  I also taught my very first solo KettleWorX class this past weekend! All of the instructors were certified a couple weeks ago and I was able to team teach twice before being on my own this weekend. It was a blast!

I leave for San Diego next week and I couldn't be more excited! It has been way too long since I have seen my good ole' Abby.  I miss her so much and this will be a much-needed reunion. We are making a trip up to LA that week so I can spend time with my uncle and his family as well.  I should probably start thinking about packing for that...

I am really excited for this summer.  We are trying to plan which concerts we are going to go to.  There are SO many good concerts coming to Klipsch this summer. I made a list of not only ones I wanted to go to, but that I reallly wanted to go to and there's 9.  I think we'd go broke if we went to all of those concerts.  A girl can dream right? We know Dave Matthews Band is a must...I hope we never have to skip this concert.  We absolutely love Dave and the atmosphere of just being at the concert. It has become such a tradition for Matt and I and it always kicks off our summer!  

See-give me two warm days and I already can't stop thinking about Summer. I'm not rushing it though, I'll take as many mild 70 degree days as the Spring chooses to give us :).

harley and boston babies

True testament to "if it's not in my phone, it's not getting done".  Poor little blog.  I have been abandoning you! Nothing too exciting going down at the Dunn household.  

There is not a whole lot I love about Winter...I say this as it's March 5th and we are in the middle of getting pelted with a silly snowstorm.  One of the very few things I love is the fact that it's cold and nasty outside-not too many things I'm able to do outside-which calls for a whole lotta extra time to not feel guilty about snuggling up on the couch with a blanket and my good pal Jax for some quality TV time :).  This Winter I've knocked out Downton Abbey (love!), Matt and I started Breaking Bad (I'm a little iffy on this one), and I'm in the middle of season one of Parenthood (love!).  When it's warm and sunny and I could be outside either soaking up the rays, walking the dog, or planting some flowers, I feel super guilty for being inside just watching TV.  There. I found a perk of Winter.

Matt recently bought a new Harley.  He is in love. He's been talking about trading in his Harley for a new one for a while now and after paying off our kitchen loan it seemed like the right time to give the man what he wants. I came home from an awesome weekend/wine tour/night in downtown Indy with the some of the girls in my family to Matt's new toy in the garage.  He was giddy like a little boy when he showed it to me.  I love seeing him so happy :).  We took it for a spin around the neighborhood to break it in, but I think we are going to have wait at least a few more weeks before we can take it out again.

This weekend, I am doing a training to become an instructor in another class at my gym.  We just introduced KettleWorX to Kiwi.  The owner, Laura, is the program director for KettleWorX and brought it to Kiwi Fitness to try for our members before they launch it nationally.  Pretty cool! They are also working on at-home DVDs.  There are 3 different classes in KettleWorx- Cardio, Core, and Resistance.  Each are 30 minute classes using kettlebells and they are AWESOME! Awesome like I could barely bend down to pick up a pen I dropped today.  It's an awesome addition to any of our other hour format classes.  She is giving us the "express" version of the training this weekend and then we will be certified to teach these classes too! I'm pretty excited.

I am leaving on a jet plane in April to see my friend Abby.  She is actually moving to Japan in August and I had to make sure I went to visit her in San Diego before she shipped off.  I miss college days when I saw her everyday.  We are going to have an awesome week :)

My friend Jamie had her baby last weekend! He is absolutely adorable and Jamie is already an awesome mom.  Which of course there were no doubts :).  She is so natural with him! He has cheeks to die for and the cutest little peach-fuzz hair.  I so badly wish we lived closer...it's about a 2 hr 45min drive from my house which is a little bit of a trek.  I am so excited to watch him grow.

If Saturday wasn't full of enough cuteness already, my mom got a brand new Boston puppy.  She ended up getting her from the same place we got Jax...they even have the same dad! Distant siblings.  She is super tiny and all puppy.  I can' wait until we get those two together to play.    Being with her makes me really miss Jax being a puppy, but I do not miss that whole potty training stage.  My mom has been sending me daily pictures of her.  I just want to squeeze her!

cold weather weekends

This Winter has been cooolllddd! I can't complain too much, we've had some random days in the 50s, but every time the weather drops below 20 degrees I am a freezing mess.  Don't get me wrong, the snow is pretty, but the freezing cold weather is for the birds.

Their favorite spot

Matt and I have had some busy weekends-it has not slowed down one bit after the holidays!  We have been trying to get to as many of my cousin Cole's basketball games as we can.  He is a senior and plays on the varsity basketball team at the high school that Matt and I both went to! It is so exciting to see him play and pretty cool to go back to our alma mater and see how much has changed (and don't hit me...but how old we are getting!  I don't mean old old I just mean how long we've been out of high school...have I dug myself into a really deep hole?).  It is so cool to see the man he is turning in to.  I remember just like yesterday a curly-headed blonde little boy begging me to play Thomas the train with him :).

We had another big Kiwi launch (54 people in the classes!) at the beginning of January.   Our classes have been booming after the holidays.  I really hope everyone sticks with it and we keep growing! We added KettleWorx (a series of kettlebell classes) to our schedule as well that seems to be catching like wild fire.  

Matt and I have been lucky enough to be able to spend some time with our family and friends these past couple weekends.  I helped to celebrate my friend Jamie's baby shower a couple weeks ago.  Baby Henry will be here before we know it! She looked wonderful and it was great to be able to celebrate with everyone. 

Cutest pregnant person ever

belated Christmas with Madi!  Every little girl needs a medical kit :)

I've been loving my crockpot.  Matt's mom got us a new one for Christmas and I think I've used it at least 2x/wk since then! My most impressive? (and yes I know to most of you in won't be impressive, but for me it is!) I made a whole chicken in the crockpot on Thursday (which was absolutely delicious and so easy) and then used the broth the chicken made to make chicken noodle soup in the crockpot on Friday!  I have never made home made chicken noodle soup and I've got to say it was so yummy!  Tonight we had italian beef sandwiches in it which is always a hit.  Why didn't I discover crock pot cooking sooner?!

2012 recap...welcome 2013!

Matt looked over at me on New Years and said, "It's going to be a good year". We have been lucky enough to have had 8 great years together and I love knowing that I will get to celebrate every New Years with him.

2012 started with the first launch at Kiwi Fitness! We actually just celebrated our 1 year anniversary at the club.  It has been such an awesome journey and I am glad I was asked to be a part of it.  I have met so many new people and I love seeing them reach their goals.  We also were lucky enough to have the Super Bowl come to Indianapolis! The week before the Super Bowl was just as much fun as the actual day.  They did an awesome job transforming downtown.  The weather was unusually warm. I think I even just wore a North Face down there one day. Link to blog post here. In January, Matt was working as a part-time supervisor at UPS and I was picking up crazy overtime to cover for it.

In February, Matt was still part-time at UPS. He was working hours that made him able to come to my BodyPump class on Mondays which made me SO happy.  I wish he could still do that. We had a pesky cat in our crawlspace in February which ended up being our neighbors cat!  February weather was very mild until Super Bowl was over...and then the chill set in again.

March brought on the Les Mills Quarterly! It was SO cool.  It really was the best time and we all still talk about it.  It was when we traveled to Chicago with the Kiwi family and 300 other Les Mills lovers to spend an entire day doing Les Mills group fitness classes. 8 classes and 9 hours...I about cried when Matt put his hand on my leg on the drive home because my muscles were so sore.  (See here) We started transforming our yard in March. Matt started leveling the dirt and planting new seed in the front yard to even out the grade.

In April, Matt was promoted to a full-time supervisor at UPS! It was a super exciting time because it meant more hours and more dinero :). I celebrated my birthday at work which was actually really fun.  I mean who doesn't love 20+ different people telling you Happy Birthday all day long?!  We also had our 2nd Kiwi launch which was an even bigger turn-out.  

In May, we started planning our landscaping dreams for the front yard.  We took a couple trips to Allisonville Nursery to check out our options.  We ended up with 2 trees, 5 small shrubs, and a hydrangea bush. I can't wait to see what they look like this year when they bloom and grow.  I also started orienting a new RN to our unit which a new experience for me. It was challenging, but very rewarding.  It almost reignites your love for what you do (which I'v never really lost).  I planted my first ever tomato plants which ended up growing like crazy and gave me a ton of little cherry tomatoes.  I'll have to plan ahead for this next year and decide what I want to plant.  May also gave us our Murano! Buying a new car was super exciting and a cool experience for us.  I love the Murano!

June brought a Fitness Challenge at Kiwi where we had people come and be tested in certain areas. We broke them into groups and assigned them to an instructor for motivation.  We retested them 6 weeks later to see the progress they made.  I also (with the help of my Dad's girlfriend) planned a surprise 60th birthday party for my Dad! He was truly surprised and it was a great moment for me to be able to do that for him and pull it off!  Matt and I also planted all of our plants we had bought at the nursery in June.  It made a huge difference in the look of our front yard.  My mom came down one weekend and we planted some pots of flowers for the back of the house.  We also went to our annual Dave Matthew Band concert in June.  It was a blast like always :).

We were in the middle of a drought in July which meant nightly rituals of watering all the plants and potted flowers.  The summer was HOT and DRY.  With our planting of everything new, we were worried they would die before they even had a chance to grow.  My friend Abby came home from CA and I drove to Ohio to spend some time with her.  We traveled up to Michigan City to spend a weekend with family up at Lake Michigan.  We relaxed, laid in the sun, played in the water (which was unusually warm for July), and had burgers at Redamak's and ice cream at Oink's.  At the end of the month, we celebrated Lauren and her bridal shower! It was a great day.

August was busy with work.  Matt was working 10-11 hour days Monday-Friday and I was working 4 days a week while the NICU was steady at 80 babies.  I got my first speeding ticket.  The NICU picnic was in August.  It was where all babies who were discharged from the NICU can come back to spend the day saying hi to all of the doctors and nurses who took care of them while they were in the NICU. There were horse rides, blow-up bounce houses, face painting and tons more.  August also brought the annual May Beer Pong tournament where Matt and Grandpa May won for the THIRD year in a row.  To eveyrone's (including my) surprise, my partner and I actually almost beat them! We took home second place :).  

September-we ran our first 5K! It was the Color Me Rad run at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. It was more fun than it was a run.  Every half-mile or so they was a color-bombing station where they threw colored cornstarch on us.  We also celebrated our second anniversary! We celebrated with Fogo de Chao, a motorcycle date to Oliver Winery, and then we were off! We cruised away to the Bahamas for the weekend which was a much-needed and very-appreciated vacation.  

In October, we hosted a party for some of our family at the house.  A very belated house-warming party.  Taco bar and margaritas...good times.  We also celebrated Matt's birthday and my friend Lauren's bachelorette party. I was also forced to go to a Haunted House...I just don't like that stuff!  Matt also switched jobs to AAA Cooper from UPS in October.  

November brought weddings! Brian and Erica got married in TN the first weekend in November.  Some of our family traveled down and rented out a cabin.  That was probably one of the most fun weekends I've had in a long time. Staying up until 5 am singing and playing cards, getting up the next day for breakfast, and then to do it all again for the wedding.  The very next weekend we finally got to celebrate Lauren and J Dan! I was a bridesmaid for my very first time and it was a blast! Their wedding was so much fun and we were so excited to be able to be there to celebrate with them.  

In December, I went back to Purdue to give a guest lecture in the Maternal/Child Health class about the NICU! It was so strange to be back up in class, but to be lecturing and not taking the notes.  I really ended up loving it! We had our first real snow, which the news deemed "Blizzard 2012" the day after Christmas.  NYE was an absolute blast.  We went with some friends up to the Hoosier Park Casino.  The best way to spend a New Years-with people you love and a NYE kiss from my husband :)

Happy New Year and Welcome 2013! We are excited to see what you have in store for us!

thanksgiving-belated post :)

Thanksgiving was extra sepcial this year. My family from California was able to come! It's rare that we can all get together in the same place, so I made it a point to trade out of working Thanksgiving Day so I could be there with everyone.  

My Grandmother makes the best food. Even her turkey is amazing.  Somehow turkey usually ends up coming out dry, but hers does not.  The table full of desserts was a treat as well.  We all got to catch up, eat yummy food, and play cards.  I love my family!

the kids

Tre' had to get a picture with the Purdue coach's daughter who just happens to be dating my cousin :)

All 4 siblings with their Mom!

nana sue

My Nana Sue passed away December 9th at an impressive 80 years old.  Matt and I had actually just gone to see her the Sunday before and I am so glad we did.  She looked pretty good and liked hearing all of us tell stories and look at old pictures.  I got a call from my dad that next day saying she wasn't doing very well.

All of the family went to Ohio last Friday for her service.  It was great to have everyone together because it's so rare that we can all meet up in the same place.  We told stories, looked at pictures, and visited.

I miss both of my grandparents, but I am glad to know they are now together...probably playing golf :)