A to Z

I saw this on Mooreaseal and thought I would give it a try. Kinda fun, Right?
Here's a little bit about me, from A to Z.

A. Age: 29
B. Bed size: Queen
C. Chore that you hate: I like chores, actually....but not cleaning the toilet. Who likes cleaning a toilet? Ew.
D. Dogs: Seriously? Peanut the dachshund is the best!
E. Essential start to your day: coffee
F. Favorite color: Green
G. Gold or Silver: Silver
H. Height: 5 feet tall
I. Instruments you play: Unfortunately, none. I have always dreamed of taking violin lessons. 
J. Job title: Personal Trainer
K. Kids: None of the human variety. (See: Dogs)
L. Live: Kansas City, Missouri
M. Mother’s name: Rhymes with Cheryl 
N. Nicknames: Cher Bear, Baby Bear, ....that may be as dorky as it gets.
O. Overnight hospital stays:  I cut my finger when I was in second grade and I had to have plastic surgery. I'll assume I had to stay overnight for that. 
P. Pet peeves:  I hate when people are oblivious to others in public. Like when they take up the entire aisle at the store or start backing up into you....Pay attention, people!
Q. Quote from a movie: Ugh. I'm so bad at quoting movies. Seriously, nothing is coming to mind. 
R. Right or left handed: Right
S. Siblings: 1 bro
U. Underwear: Yes.
V. Vegetable you hate: Radishes if they are too thick...then they are too spicy. Otherwise, I do like veggies.
W. What makes you run late:  I hate being late. If I am on time, I think I am late. I like to be early, but can get sidetracked with household chores or goofing around on the internet. Oh, the internet.
X. X-Rays you’ve had: Teeth. That may be it. 
Y. Yummy food that you make: Ummm....I follow recipes sometimes and am generally impressed with myself when things turn out to be delicious. I don't have any 'go to' recipes though.
Z. Zoo animal: I love animals. I'll say monkeys first. Camels are cool. I like rhinos. I could go on....

Renegade Craft Fair! A Review.

I had put off getting a ticket to Chicago for this year's Renegade Craft Fair, but at the last minute I bought my ticket and went. I am so happy I did. Being at that fair (this was my second year) makes me happy inside in a way I can't explain.....but I will try.

I love the feeling of being around creative people. I love seeing what other people create. I love inspecting the workmanship of something up close, and talking with the creator. I love shopping for cute things and weird things.

My friend Blair lives in Chicago and she so graciously hosted me for the weekend. When we arrived at the fair, I asked just one thing of her. That is, that if I act interested in something, she should encourage me to buy it. I wanted to spend money and I didn't want to leave with the feeling that I left something behind. I had a great time shopping and made sure to visit each booth twice to ensure that I was leaving nothing unseen.

That's Blair and me. Spending money makes me happy.

I purchased quite a few art prints. This one, from The Frantic Meerkat, is one of my favorites.

I also love love love Berkley Illustrations. I purchased two prints for myself last year and this year bought an admiring friend a print. A Badger. One of the fun things about these prints besides the obviously fun 'animal dressed in clothes' part, is that each one comes with a little description. 

This one says, " You might not expect the world's foremost authority on dungeon mastering to excel in the field of freak dancing, but this is not your ordinary badger." Fun, right?

Two of my favorite purchases include a Morse Code necklace from Coatt and a cute bag from Jenny N Design.

I think in total, we were Renegading for 6 hours. That's a long time, and I barely ate anything all day. I had the feeling of not wanting to miss a single item, of taking it all in, of really experiencing the fair. I didn't want to waste time on silly things like eating and drinking....(it's true, I didn't drink water all day long because I didn't want to pee in a port a potty.....unfortunately, my feet were little, swollen butterballs at the end of the night). 

I had the best time, and next time, I will drink more water. I promise.

BRB!

I just returned home from a trip to Chicago. I went for the Renegade Craft Fair and to see a friend. But, wouldn't you know it, I have had zero time to blog since I have returned. I am very busy at work. 

However, I plan to give you the low down...

or the down low 

this weekend. 

Stay tuned.

It's a Dachshund Thing....

...You wouldn't understand. Or maybe you would.
I'll admit it. I have a thing with dachshunds....and the only way I can explain it in a way that makes sense is to steal that stupid Jeep quote....because I'm sure this obsession doesn't make sense to most of you, especially those of you without a dachshund to call your own. Perhaps it exists in other mediums for other people....exists in ways I can't understand. Maybe for you, it's a Chihuahua Thing (I don't get it) or a Cat Thing (I don't like cats). For me, however, it's dachshunds.

I can pinpoint the exact start of this obsession. August of 2007. That's when I met Peanut. A friend of mine and Zeb's suggested we go to City Pets some day if we're feeling bored to look at the cutest dog they have there....you know,

"just to look at the puppy...."

"if we're feeling bored"

I being the more practical of the pair had always said I would wait to get a dog when I turned 30 years old. That made sense to me. 30 symbolized stability and a house and a career....just like when I was 20 years old, I thought 25 symbolized business suits and casual Friday.

So there I was that August afternoon in 2007, 25 years old, falling in love with a puppy.

Now, don't get me wrong, if Practical Cheryl had her way, when it came time to get a dog, adoption would be the first option. I fully believe in adopting pets, but on this day, I was not looking to bring home a dog friend so there was no planning this experience...and, in this moment, I couldn't find Practical Cheryl anywhere anyway.

We spent a lot of time playing with this little puppy and then I  remember Zeb sitting in the play area holding her with the biggest smile on his face and begging me with his eyes to bring her home.

Bring her home we did not. No Sir!

We went home that day...

 and then went back the next day to get her.

There we are. The day we became a family. Me, Zeb and Peanut.

From that moment on, I have been a total dachshund person. I own several dachshund home decor items and often shop online for anything dachshund....jewelry, art, etc. I would have more Dachshund goodies to show for it, if I weren't so afraid of overdoing it and really geeking out and turning our house into a Dachshund Decor Heaven.

I have also had to stop myself several times from stopping my car and jumping out to pet other dachshunds I see walking around the city. I feel there is a connection among dachshund lovers. This small group of the population lucky enough to spend time with this little clown dog who is the silliest, most serious, smartest, most animated companion.

A Scrapbooker

I was talking about my scrapbooking in an embarrassed way recently...talking about how I like it but how I feel nerdy about it and don't really want to scream from the rooftops that I am a scrapbooker and after all this, the response was:

"Life is too short"

And it's true. Life is too short to be embarrassed, especially about something I actually enjoy doing. So listen up everyone, I am a scrapbooker!!

I made a couple pages from our ski trip to Colorado.

The first one is about a Pineapple Upside Down cake.

Every year on Zeb's Birthday, he asks for tacos and Pineapple Upside Down cake (something his mom always makes for him). Now, I don't know why it took me so long to make the following discovery, but I didn't realize until we were about 2 hours away from Leadville that I should make a Pineapple Upside Down cake that evening for Zeb's Birthday. Since all we really did on his Birthday was drive for hours. and hours.

So we went to the grocery store upon arriving in town and I got the ingredients. I was so nervous that the cake wouldn't turn out right because:

1. I had never made one all by myself before.

2. I don't know how to bake in the altitude.

However, the cake turned out great. I hear it was delicious (I was on a special diet at this point) and I can attest to its beauty.

Now for the big reveal.

A page about a cake.

Brrrr already?

This morning I woke up and it wasn't even 60 degrees yet. It was cold. Brrr....

Mind you, I am more sensitive than most concerning the cold, and spend most of the winter wearing my winter coat, sleeping in stocking caps, sporting purple lips, etc, so though this may sound like a stretch for some of you, but this morning I was reminded of winter. It was a good memory though. Last winter we had the pleasure of being invited to my friend Brian's (husband to Kate) family cabin in Leadville, Colorado.

I was quite apprehensive when discussion of this trip started because I absolutely hate hate hate riding in cars for long distances. I can handle road trips where the idea is to stop and explore every few hours, but when the destination is over 6 hours (actually 4 hours) away, I would opt to fly. I did consider it in this circumstance as well, but thought it might be an inconvenience to my fellow travelers if they had to concern themselves with picking me up at the airport at a certain time.

So in the car we went. We left KC on the morning of February 4th quite early...I'll say 6am. Good morning!....and then drove ALL DAY LONG. 12 hours later we made it to Leadville. We stopped for dinner, went to the grocery store and headed to the cabin.

The beauty at the cabin made the whole day of driving worth it. It was a beautiful, snow covered landscape. The picture above was taken the next morning....don't get confused, We left KC and it was dark and arrived in Leadville and it was dark.

The next day was day 1 of skiing. Zeb, Kate and I opted for lessons and the other 3 took to the slopes. After lessons we hung out on the bunny slope for awhile until a blizzard came through. I learned then, that skiing without proper eye wear and face covering is no fun and the 3 of us retreated into the lodge to wait for the others. They joined us with stories of snow blindness and spills as they attempted to make their way down the mountain during the blizzard. Their experience sounded treacherous and fun but nothing this newbie wanted any part of.

Day 2 and the 6 of us got to ski the slopes together. It was freezing on this day. I think the temperature was 5 degrees, (which we only realized after getting in the van at the end of the day) but add altitude and speed and it had to have been much colder than that. I'll say it was -20 degrees and accurate or not, it sure did feel like it.

So, day 2: -20 degrees.

I was a bit miserable at times (most of the time) and I had to emergency ski to the lodge a couple of times because I was convinced that once I took my gloves off, all I would have were dead, blackened hands. Surprisingly, this was not the case, my hands were not frost bitten, just cold....and hot chocolate seemed to make everything better.

 A picture of Zeb, me and Amber on a lift. We were smiling, I promise.

This was Zeb's first time skiing (I had past experience skiing in Colorado in 6th grade) and he was a trooper. (side note: I do believe during dinner after our 2nd day of skiing he was awarded the 'Spirit Award"). After falling as many times as he did, I surely thought he would throw in the towel at some point and belly up to the bar in the lodge and just drink the day away. However, he stuck with it all day long, and as I was in the lodge waiting for everyone to finish their last run (I threw in the towel before Zeb did, even) he skied down that mountain like a pro. Perhaps the absence of my yelling 'Pizza Slice!!!!!' as he whizzed past me on the slopes or other's constant (and caring) advice every time he fell helped him to find his ski legs.

Let's try this again.

My blog went stagnant. I know this. The problem the first time around was my focus of the blog. How can I make a blog about exercise and eating right when I do waaaay more than that with my life?....and I don't always exercise and eat right anyway. It became a difficult task to write about: working out and eating right or trying to relate all things to working out and eating right. Boring too.

When this blog came to a screeching halt, I was also becoming more involved in something I wasn't sure I was ready to share with lots of people. I was starting to train for a figure competition. I will describe this competition as women on stage in sparkly bikinis flexing their muscles and getting judged. This was so out of my comfort zone of living a mostly no make up, low maintenance, jeans and T shirt kind of life that to share my new goal felt very uncomfortable. I also didn't know if I could do it.

Look, me in a T-shirt (with my pooch, Peanut).

Me again! This time I'm in the sparkly bikini.

However, I did do it (see above), after sacrificing a lot of things....like my family, my social life, my happiness...the list goes on! I did it. Done. I did get to look pretty ripped after all that hard work and I chiseled myself a nice pair of abs as well. I also won a couple of trophies too. It was hard hard work though... and probably something I won't do a second time. During those 6 months, I spent a lot of time lifting weights and doing cardio and when I wasn't lifting weights or doing cardio, I was thinking about lifting weights and doing cardio. I was also spending my time cooking chicken and eating chicken, and eating eggs and timing my meals, etc.

Now that that chapter in my life is over, I can start blogging again.....and this time it'll be a bigger and better blog than before! Bigger? I don't know, but better, at least, because I am more than just a personal trainer, I am a pretty crafty girl too and I like to garden, and I like to travel and this blog will be all of those things. This time, it won't be boring.