100 Pushup Challenge: Initial Test

Turbo Ab Jam done! I'm going to be sore tomorrow.....

So I am starting the 100 Pushup Challenge over again. Since my surgery put me out of commission for a month, I decided to just start the whole thing over.

Initial Test: 15 Pushups
Rank: 3 (sweet!)
Plan for Friday (I highlighted in green what I need to do)

Day 1 rest 60 seconds between each SET (longer if required)
	up to 5 push ups	6 - 10 push ups	11 - 20 push ups
set 1	2	6	10
set 2	3	6	12
set 3	2	4	7
set 4	2	4	7
set 5	max (at least 3)	max (at least 5)	max (at least 9)

I'm soooo ready! Bring it! =) Hopefully tomorrow I can get out and do a nice run. We shall see.

Accomplishment!

I did 45 minutes of cardio last night! I threw in one of my beloved cardio dvd's and was bouncing around the room. It was great! Dakota was looking at me like I was nuts but I don't think she realizes how foolish she looks sometimes.... Tonight is going to be the start of the 100 Pushup Challenge. And I'm going to do the ab focused part of my cardio dvd tonight. Yay for having a plan! I'll report back how that goes. I have never done the ab part of the dvd so we'll see how much pain I'm in from soreness tomorrow.

On an unrelated note, when Ryan was bringing me to work today, we were coming down 5th street and waiting at the light next to the Monarch & the Austin Lofts (or something like that). And out of the Lofts stumble these 2 girls who obviously didn't make it home last night....both wearing leftover going out wear & makeup, not to mention that they look rather unhealthy because they were as skinny as a stop sign poll. And both were stumbling...i.e. still drunk at 7:40am! That makes my head hurt just thinking about it. But it was funny how lost they looked. =)

ACL 2009 Lineup!!!!

Holy crap they FINALLY released the lineup for ACL this year. I am totally kicking myself for not buying the 3 day passes when I got the fiiiiiiiiirst email after last years ACL. I mean, hello! Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews band, Beastie Boys and John Legend!!!! Oh, and can't forget Asleep at the Wheel. Count me in! There are other bands I want to see but I don't want to bore you with that list. But alas, no ACL this year. At least, not its 3 day pass form. The wedding is the following weekend. After after last year and Ryan getting sick for an entire week after the festival because of all the dust and air nasty'ness....I think we will be forgoing said festival. *tears* I'm hoping we can at least get away with going just 1 day. Bring on the sun, heat, dust, overpriced food and crowds!

Yea, so this swine flu thing on the news is kinda sorta scary. I have my little bottle of hand sanitizer at my desk and will proceed to use it all day. (this is why I don't watch the news) I hope my relatives in Mexico are ok. I think they should be. They live in the mountains. But with this kind of insanity, you just never know. I should call my Mom & ask her.

Oh, in A.W.E.S.O.M.E news, my brother decided to go to Boston University!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo! Boston, here we come! =) That's so exciting! I guess I need to find a parka to wear since I know I'll be freezing my ass off if we go over Thanksgiving to visit....

Oh, and FAIL on starting the Push up Challenge last night. Tonight will be a cardio workout dvd evening, no excuses.

Twitter & stuff

I've broken down....I'm on twitter. I make no promises of entertainment.

Today is mine & Ryan's 1 year engage-a-versary & 6 year anniversary! Go us!

Very Productive

This weekend was so productive! Here is what got done:

-Ryan designed the wedding programs
-Started on invitation inserts
-Am pretty much done with my cardbox
-cake topper is half way done...need to order more rhinestones to finish it.
-picked up paper for the programs from Shannon
-Took Liliana to get her hair cut
-Ryan redid the ring around the front tree with retaining wall blocks. looks amazing!
-Tried 3 new recipes (Chicken Salad & Garlic Lime pork chops w/ Chipotle lime rice!!!!!!) Both courtesy of Gina's Weight Watcher blog...so go check it out
-Brunch with Trish & Joe
-Made cupcakes for Trish
-Visited campus to take pictures of the buildings for our table numbers
-Michaels trip with Trish

sorry this post is random. I have a sinus headache so I don't feel very eloquent. Not like I usually am. Time to eat a cupcake!

This week's goal: Go walking/do a workout dvd every day

mmmmm coffee

Terri was nice enough to bring me back a soy chai tea latte from Starbucks this morning. mmmmmmmmmm delish. So this will be my 'indulgence purchase' this week. I've been wanting to go out to lunch or something, but I figured one cup of coffee won't break the bank as much as a lunch meal in downtown Austin. I think Ryan and I are venturing to the store tonight to stock up on fruits/veggies/healthy stuff. And I need to plan our meals for this week. I wonder what I feel like having. Suggestions? I'm going to cruise Gina's Weight Watchers Recipes and see what I can find. I'm also going to cruise through my Rachel Ray & Giada recipe books and see what kind of 'healthier' options I can find. I've really been wanting salmon lately.

1-1

The Spurs got their act together last night and tied the series 1-1. Yes! I just hope they can keep up the momentum and finish the series on top. We watched the game at Rocky & Rita's last night while I stuffed my face with Taco Cabana flautas and queso. mmmmmmmmmm. I didn't get to see the end of the game though because I started falling asleep from being tired. The Spurs were up 20 points, I would hope they didn't f it up.

I think tonight, Ryan and I are going to be productive in the garden. But that depends on how quickly I can get to a FedEx place and overnight a package. Yea, my life is boring. But I love it.

On a different note, I didn't get the UT job. Hence yesterday's post of needing to drink. Back to the job drawing board.

is it 5 yet?

Because I need an f'ing drink. Like, 2 hours ago. Ugh.

Daddy's Bday!

I have so much to update on, so many pictures to post. I'm a bad i.e. lazy blogger.

BUT today is my Daddy's Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He never says what he wants to I'll figure something out and take it to him this weekend.

**edit** What the hell happened to just basic free e-cards??? No thank you to all the websites who want me to sign up for a free trial. I already get enough junk mail. I'd rather not get more.

Breakfast of Champions

I just had a Polkadots Banana Nutella cupcake for breakfast. I RULE!

Ryan is having Chili Cheese Fritos for breakfast. He rules too!

Birthday Recap Part 1

So I'm going to have to break down my birthday recap into 2 parts because the pictures I took are being held hostage on my camera. =) Anywho, this birthday was fan-freakin-tastic. Thank you thank you thank you to everyone that sent me a birthday txt, comment, facebook post, and knot post! It made me sooo happy.

Some of the best parts of the day happened at work! Ryan sent me tulips and a very sweet card! They are soooo pretty! He always does so good! Everyone at work was jealous. But what made them even more jealous was the DOZEN cupcakes from Polkadots that Trish & Joe sent me for my birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was in HEAVEN. The fat kid inside me wanted to stuff them all in my face and then take a nap. But I was nice and ladylike (ha) and only had one while at work. And let me tell you, the Vanilla Chocolate Chip cupcake...to die for. These are my new favorite cupcakes. All of them. Favorites. =) And then my work was nice enough to give me a birthday card and a starbucks gift card. Bring on the soy chai tea latte!

So after much thought, I decided that I wanted to go to Carrabbas for dinner. mmmmmmmmmmmm it was delish also. I had the Chicken Bryan which had goat cheese, sundried tomatoes and a basil lemon butter sauce. devine. And of course, fettucini alfredo. I could eat a whole bowl of that by itself and be one happy camper.

The only sorta 'sad' part of my birthday was that I was so full after dinner that I didn't get to eat the second cupcake I wanted. But I know that I will fix that problem today. =)

Oh, and I need to say thank you to Kimmie over at Full Circle because she sent me a birthday card in the mail!!! Thank you so much Kimmie! I was so surprised!

P.S.
Dear Mother Nature,
Can you please get your act together and just hurry up and rain today. I really want to play outside for my birthday party and the way you are acting doesn't fit into my plan. Because, as you may or may not know, there are some pretty important events this weekend and unfortunetly, there wasn't room on the guest list to invite the rain. Thanks for understanding.

Love,

25!!!

Image found here
Happy Birthday to Me!! I'm so excited! *Woot Woot*

YAY GTG!

Soooooo tonights GTG was awesome! I had such a great time =)

sucks..

Today at work sucks....sucks bigtime....

180 days...

until the wedding...that's 5 months. I know it sounds like a lot, but let's face reality here. It's not that long and I still have a very long to do list. commence mini freak out.....NOW.
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Ok, and done. Back to updating. So my interview last week went really well (I think). But I guess one can never really tell. They are continuing first round interviews today and tomorrow and should be doing call backs for 2nd round interviews at the end of the week. OMG I hope I get one. Oh, and for V-Ro, it's a position in the dept. of philosophy. Not my usual cup of tea but it sounds entertaining. They hope to have a decision by next week!!!!!! I will def. be saying a prayer and lighting a candle this week.

Yay Pictures!

So the wonderful Jillers has tagged me to play Keepin' It Real!

Rules:
Take a picture of yourself RIGHT now.
No primping or preparing.
Just snap a picture.
Load the picture onto your blog.
Tag some people to play.

I'm feeling a little lazy, so whoever wants to play, can play. =) But the pic above is my new haircut!!! I love it. I think its really cute and Ryan likes it. You guys are lucky that I did my hair today. Probably won't happen very often.

This is what my hair looked like before it got cut! Very long..

Something else that I am SUPER proud of this weekend is that I made homemade cupcakes! Pretty much from scratch. I am so excited! I made Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes and tweeked the recipe a little bit from the help of this blog. I'm glad I found that blog before I made the cupcakes because the amount of butter in the original recipe was obscene. Even the version I used seemed like a lot, so I think I will try to play around with it a little more to see just how much butter I can cut out. Now for pictures.....
And these cupcakes were freakin' delish!

Tomorrow

So tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I have my checkup tomorrow for my surgery. So hopefully the good doctor tells me that I'm doing amazingly well.

Now, also tomorrow, I have an interview for a job at UT. I really want this job. I'm almost afraid to get my hopes up and actually say out loud how much I want this job. Not just because a full time permanent job would be fan freakin' tastic when it comes to planning a wedding and I like the idea of health insurance, but because I would be back on campus and I could possibly be working in the same department as my old boss from the work study days at UT. So why am I afraid of saying out loud that I want this job? Because I don't want to jinx it. I have tried to stay positive throughout this whole unemployment thing and keeping the mantra of 'things happen for a reason' but sometimes its hard to stay positive after so long. But I will keep my mantra in the hopes that all the other jobs that I interviewed me for didn't hire me because I was suppose to wait this long for this UT job.

AAAAAAND I am getting a haircut tomorrow. FINALLY! My bangs look like a long first layer. It's really bad. I should do a before and after picture like Shan. Hopefully I remember. Usually I wait until we go to Gonzales so Ryan's sister can cut my hair but I can't wait any longer. So I will be venturing to Trendz Salon off 183 to visit Apryll at Trendz of Austin. One of Ryan's coworkers co-owns it with his wife (I think, I don't remember the whole story) and last time I went, I loved my haircut. So, at 2:30pm, I shall finally have real bangs again. haha.

And one of the best things about tomorrow....I will get to see Liliana (my MOH). YAY!

Chips & Queso

While on 5th street on the way to work, I saw something that made me smile today on the El Arroyo sign..

"In QUESO emergency, your CHIPS double as a flotation device."

It made me smile....and want queso.

ACL 2009

So I love ACL. Totally LOVE it. Even with the heat, overpriced water & overpriced delish food...I still love it. But I am a sad panda because ACL 2009 is the weekend before the wedding. And I want to get married, that's the most important mile stone this year, but why did ACL organizers do this to me! If someone insanely awesome is playing, maybe we'll go for one day, but after last years dust bowl fiasco where the end result was Ryan looking like a cholo & wearing a bandana & being sick for the following 2 weeks...then I think I can just suck it up and forgo this years drunk ACL festivies. Still makes me sad though.

New Week, New Post

So it's a new week. I want to that everyone for all the txts, comments, love notes, and flowers that I received during my crazy appendix event last week. I really really appreciate it and it made everything seem so much easier to handle. I have some pictures on my camera I want to post but I'll do that tonight when I get home.

A few personalized shoutouts though...

To Amanda: Thank you so much for the flowers! They really did brighten my day. It's amazing the effect that yellow daisies can have on someones mood. =)

To Trish: Thank you sooooooooooooo much for bringing me Hey Cupcake! even though you were finishing school work and regular household things.

To Lily: Oh Flower! It was such a surprise to see you on my doorstep! I loved it so much! Thanks for the card. I could tell that you put a lot of sunshine in that card!

To everyone else: There are to many of you guys to name but I really do love you all for showing me some love and giving me get well vibes. =)

In Wedding related news, I have started blinging out my cake topper! I'm so excited! I think it will be a lot of work (mainly just time consuming) but I figured that if I pop in a movie and get to glue'in, then I'll finish it in no time! I'm also debating on selling the BM gift bags that I bought. I am changing my mind and wanting something different but I'm not sure if I will find what I want. But if anyone is interested, I may have some bags for sale in the near future....

Thursday's not so fun adventure...

So, I will preface this blog post by saying that I am alright and feeling 100 times better than I was yesterday night...

If I had a twitter account, at around 8:30pm, it would have said 'On the way to the Seton ER'.

All day yesterday, I felt a little off. I had a pain in my lower right abdomen that wouldn't go away. I thought I slept wrong, or pulled a muscle while walking or just by being a complete klutz. But the pain didn't go away. After canceling a trip to go with Trish to First Thursday, I went home to try and nap the pain away....yea, didn't work. It actually felt like it was getting worse. If I put pressure on the lower right of my abdomen, it would hurt....a lot.

After arriving at the ER, talking to the nurses, finally seeing a doctor, getting examined, and have a CT scan done, the verdict was in. I needed to have surgery to have my appendix removed. I was TERRIFIED. This was the first time I had been a patient in a hospital since I was born. And here I was, being told that I was going to be prepped for the O.R. in 30 minutes. I'm usually one tough cookie, but this cookie was crumbling from fear. Thank the Lord that Ryan & my parents were there. I was a wreck.

But everyone at the Seton off of 183 & Braker was A-MAY-ZING. They took care of me, kept my parents informed and just helped me calm down. I ended up going into surgery at about midnight and finished at about 2AM this morning. The good thing is that since I'm 'young & healthy' I was able to be released after lunch today around 2pm.

So now I'm at home just resting and hanging out. Thanks to everyone who txted me & sent me 'get well soon' vibes after seeing Ryan's blog. To Linda, Lily, Erin, Dawn & many others, I'm sorry that I/Ryan didn't txt or call to tell you guys what was going on. I didn't want to worry everyone.

I totally learned from this experience. I have always been a person that would get sick, and hope it would 'clear up on its own'. After this, I realized that I will not be having that mentality. I was really really lucky that Ryan pushed me to go to the ER, otherwise we would have been dealing with a ruptured appendix.

Anywho, I guess it's back to bed and resting up. I am sad that I won't be able to do my boot camp anymore. Guess the new 'skinny plan' will have to wait about another 6 weeks. So much for the Texas Roundup 5k. I'm still totally having my birthday party though...... =)

P.S. Trish, I will definitely be needing that cupcake on Sunday. =) I hope you gave a great birthday this weekend!

Unrelated and more fun

So this is completely unrelated to my previous post and I realized that I forgot to post about it yesterday. Jen from Not Just Another Jennifer is doing a 100th Post Giveaway!

So, I would usually say 'Hey, go check it out' but this time, I would rather you not. Reasons for this are:
1. My birthday is coming up so I want those birthday candles.
2. Sudoku is at the top of my list of all time favorite puzzles
3. I need a new nail polish color
4. I love super cute socks more than you do.
5. The body lotion is the perfect size to fit in my purse
6. I like the green basket

So, while I want lots of people to check out Jen's post, I feel slightly selfish today and totally wanna win. =) Congrats on your 100th post Jen!

Worried...

So I was trying to be good and not blog at work. But I'm super super worried. My mom called me last night and said my cousin is in the hospital. She suffers from migraines and lately it has been worse (like vomiting after her migraines and as of yesterday, numbness throughout her body). So my aunt took her to the ER and they did an MRI and they found an "abnormality". What the hell does that mean? I'm really scared. I'm hoping it's nothing but part of me doesn't believe that. Am I that cynical and jaded?

My mom might be going to the Valley this weekend to go see them if the news she gets from my aunt isn't good news. With my dad and brother out of town this weekend going to U. of Boston, my other brother working, I might stay home instead of going to Houston. I guess I should tell Ryan about that plan....(we have a wedding reception to go to). I'm even thinking of postponing my birthday party just in case I need to make a last minute trip down there.

Ugh, this is not a good way to start the morning...