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Last week was amazing.  Our friends Vivek and Novie had their wedding (finally!) and there were 4 days of fun-filled events to attend.  I know the Noviv’s were stressed by the crazy amount of things they needed to do, but by the end of the 4 days you could see the happiness on their faces.  I remember feeling the exact same way the day of our wedding just a few months ago and it makes me so happy to know they experienced that as well.

On Wednesday the girls attended a Mendhi ceremony at the house of Vivek’s parents.  I wasn’t able to stay all night, but I did participate in parts of it.  Below is my “tattoo” with the paste still applied.  It dries for awhile and eventually flakes off revealing the pattern on the skin. 

It was nice to hang out with the girls and take a few minutes to talk with Novie about boring everyday things.  I hope it helped take her mind off her super busy schedule, if only for a few minutes!

Thursday evening was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner at III Forks.  Super yummy food and great company.  It was so nice to catch up with all of our friends who came in from out of town.  Novie and Viv also assembled some pics for a cute slide show that made everyone laugh.  It was a great personal touch to the evening.

Friday we attended the Indian ceremony and reception at Vivek’s parents country club.  I have never attended this ceremony before, so it was very interesting to see how another culture treats a marriage.  The priest also stopped between each part of the ceremony to explain in English what was going on - I really appreciated that!  Novie and Vivek were decked out in traditional clothing and I hardly recognized them!  They looked great though and the evening was so much fun. 

Saturday was the last day of the formal events.  We attended a beautiful Catholic ceremony in the afternoon.  Novie’s mom took part in the ceremony by singing parts of the service.  Now we know where Novie’s great singing voice came from!  Her sister Grace also did some readings as well as our friend Ryan.  Except for a mishap with the Unity candle, the ceremony was flawless and you could see how excited they were to be married!  After the service we went to the Ritz-Carlton in Dallas for a cocktail hour and dinner reception.  I’ve posted pics below of the ceremony and reception, and you can see what an amazing job all of their vendors did in creating an amazing setting for their wedding.  Novie and Viv added their own personality to the evening as well with Novie even singing a song for Vivek - what a great surprise for everyone!  Blake and I were honored to be guests at their wedding and we wish them all of the best!

Thanks to a gift from Ben, I’m now able to snap pictures of all the strange things the puppies do during the day.  Today Shelby found a new napping spot…

Blake and I have been in our new house for about a month now.  We’ve spent most of our free time trying to get organized, doing random house projects, meeting our neighbors, etc.  So you would think after a month that we would have most of the boxes unpacked.  HAHAHAHAHAHA.  No, we don’t.  The office still has about 30 boxes in it.  We finally realized that the problem is that our master closet (also upstairs by the office) is not organized to efficiently the space.  Because of that, we really have nowhere to go with about half of the boxes in the office.

So my amazing friend Lara came over and measured our closets for us and gave us some great ideas for how to organize them.  She seriously has a talent for this - one look at our smaller downstairs closet and she knew exactly what to do to make it a useable space.  We really needed that vision to get us started.  She also recommended we go to the Container Store and ask them to design a closet for us.  The service is free, and you don’t have to purchase when they are done (although you will totally want to).

We waited for the shelving sale to start, then headed over to the Container Store by NorthPark mall in Dallas.  Debbie was our designer and she was awesome.  She took our measurements, which are extremely complicated because of the shape of the closet, and then helped us build the closet wall by wall.  She gave us some good ideas for functionality and tips to keep costs down.  At the end when we totaled up the space, I was a bit shocked by the price.  But have no fear, the program can break down the cost by each wall in the closet so you know where you are spending the most money.  It also shows you what is on sale and what isn’t, so you can remove pieces that aren’t and go back and buy them during their annual 30% off sale that starts Christmas Eve.

We ended up purchasing two walls, the shoe racks, and part of a 3rd wall.  We can install this now, then when we go back in December our design will still be in the system, and we can pick up the rest of the pieces at 30% off without having to recreate our design.  I have to say that Container Stores prices are not cheap, but the service at the design counter and the convenience of being able to go back when its on sale is awesome.  They also gave us an installation demo and made it sound very easy.  I’ll do another post when we actually install the system and let you know how it goes!!

Funny looking word isn’t it?  Monday morning I arrived at bootcamp solo - my workout partner bailed on me at the last minute to get some extra sleep.  Ready for another day of ass kicking, I was surprised to hear we would be going through another assesment so we could see if we were making any improvements.  So we began our half mile run (which is actually .7 miles), 1 minute of crunches, 1 minute of push ups, and holding a plank until you pass out.

My run improved by 5 seconds, situps by about 15, no improvement on pushups, and the plank hold by 15 seconds.  It’s nice to see something happen!  We finished Monday by doing some additional drills by the lake.  The SMU Rowing team is back to practice, so it was more of an obstacle course over there trying to avoid other groups while we ran from station to station.

On Wednesday we worked pretty hard again.  But I was able to complete 16 pushups on my toes, instead of my knees, which is a big accomplishment for me.  Of course today my arms are sore, as well as my butt.  Sometimes having an office upstairs is not a good thing!

All in all, boot camp is really doing a lot for me.  I’m able to get in 3 one hour workouts each week, all at a medium to high intensity level.  Before I was averaging 2 or 3 half hour workouts, and I was getting no weight training at all.  I think I’ll be signing up for another 6 weeks once this session ends!

There is some serious ass kicking going on.  Unfortunately, I am on the receiving end of the kick!

Wednesday marked the first session that did not make me sore the next day.  I was able to spend a lovely Thursday running around town with no complaints, and no need to curse our instructor.  So feeling like I was improving, I was up for a challenge this morning.

Oh boy did I get a challenge.  Walking lunges, reverse walking lunges, squats, planks, running, sprinting, double crunches, jackknife crunches, killer crunches, and all sorts of bicep and tricep exercises that I can’t remember the name of.  By the end I thought I might lose my breakfast, but luckily I had not eaten yet so I had none to lose!

I’m sure I will be sore tomorrow, but I’m pretty proud to have made it through a whole hour of that.  Today was also the halfway point in the 6 week session, and I’m seeing some results regarding muscle tone, so that makes me happy.  Even if I’m still cursing the instructor.

I broke my promise to myself not to miss any days of bootcamp.  I really wanted to make all 18 sessions as my first step towards improving my physical health.  But last weekend I went on a bachelorette trip to float the Comal river.  And I came back with a sunburn.  It hurt to have my t-shirt touch my stomach.  I sat under a fan Sunday night putting aloe on my belly and letting the fan dry it up in an attempt to cool down.  So on Monday morning the thought of getting into a sports bra and doing push ups on concrete with sunburned knees just didn’t appeal to me.  So I skipped.

I was upset about missing the class.  Especially when I remembered I’ve already paid for this!  But I moved on and went to class today ready to work, but not quite perky as the 5:00 a.m. wakeup call is still rough.  Our instructor changed up the drill routine again and the time flew by, and although I’m sleepy now, I’m glad I went and I hope not to miss any of the remaining 10 classes!

In other news, I upped my hand weights from 4 pounds to 6 pounds about a week ago.  Yes, I realize these are wimpy weights, but I’ve got wimpy arms and I’m fine with that.  My biceps are strong enough that the 4 pounders weren’t doing anything.  Unfortunately, the 6 pound weights are rough on my triceps and shoulders.  I’m hoping it improves so I don’t have to lug 2 sets of weights to class each time.  I’m too lazy for that.

I completed Day 5 of boot camp this morning, and I have to say this week has been rough.  After last week’s start, we did a day of benchmarking to see how many sit ups and push ups we could do in one minute, how long we could hold a plank, and our time for a half mile jog (which we later discovered to be more like .7 miles).  After that, Friday seemed pretty fun and easy.

This week they have really stepped up the drills.  We are doing lots more running and there are fewer breaks for you to rest.  I think my biggest nemesis right now are tricep kick backs.  I have very weak arms, but alternating between push ups and kickbacks really pushes my limits.  I guess that is what boot camp is for, but man was I tired after we finished today.  I came home, showered, and went back to bed for what was supposed to be a 30 minute nap.  Blake woke me up an hour and a half later when he left for work!  I’m still enjoying it, but I’m definitely worn out today.

We moved!  We finally were able to get in to our new house and enjoy the feeling of being homeowners.  Well, I’m not sure we’ve gotten to that point yet, but we are enjoying meeting our new neighbors and digging our way out of the boxes.  Slowly but surely we are turning it into our home, and its a great feeling.

In other news, my ballet studio closed.    I was very sad to see it go, but I understand the reasoning behind it and I fully support my teacher in her quest to improve her own well-being.  After 4 years of making everyone else happy, she truly deserves some time for herself!  Because of this and the recent move, my workouts have disappeared.  Knowing that I quickly slip into a world of laziness if I don’t keep a schedule, I decided to join a group exercise program known as boot camp. 

I was able to find one about 15 minutes from my house on the shores of White Rock Lake.  It has a 5:30 a.m. start time, 3 days per week.  It’s a 6 week program and I was excited to get started.  I’ve been needing to get some weight training back in my routine, and this program focuses on cardio and weights, as well as stretching and core muscles. 

A friend of mine joined me for the program and she picked me up early this morning, before the sun had even come up.  We groaned all the way to class, but after 45 minutes of running, weights, crunches, and planks we came out alive.  I had a pretty good time and felt energized starting my day.  However, now my quads are starting to whimper a little, and I know I won’t be able to lift my arms tomorrow from doing tricep kick backs.  Its a good thing I don’t have to go back until Wednesday!

This blog will be more like what you would see in my personal journal.  Why in the world would I want to publish this on the Internet?  Well, because my journal is packed away in some box and it would take me forever to find it.  By then I would be too frustrated to write anyway!

You see, we were supposed to close on our house on June 19th.  But after returning from my brother’s wedding in San Antonio, we quickly realized that was not going to happen.  Our builder called and rescheduled our closing to July 19th.  We were less than thrilled.  This change required extending our lease at the current craptastic apartment complex, paying a daily fee to hold our super-great interest rate (rates had already gone up), and of course living among the boxes for another month.  After a few days of cursing the builder, we decided to suck it up and just focus on the new close date.  So on July 18th we went for our walk-thru.  Complete. Waste. Of. Time.  They were still assembling kitchen cabinetry.  And baseboard weren’t done.  And a huge list of other things that were incomplete or just plain wrong.

So we postponed our close until the 23rd.  On the 20th the builder called and implied everything was done, but that the inspection failed because there was no bathtub in the master bath.  This was by our request, but apparently the final has to match the plans submitted to the city.  We changed that after the submission - so basically they have to install a bathtub now, get a new plumber’s inspection, then a new city inspection.  So Blake and I go down Friday night to check out our mostly “finished” house. 

Yep, as you may have guessed, it was far from complete.  So we spent Friday night and part of Saturday compiling a massive list of things to be finished or corrected.  We ran into someone on the builder’s staff and went through everything with him and then submitted the list via email to the builder.  So now we wait for them to finish the list, then we can close.

I guess more than the builder essentially lying about when we could close (on more than 1 occasion) I’m mostly just irritated because our lives have been on hold for the last 35 days and counting.  Basically everything has been “well after we move we will _________”.  This has been said regarding trips we would take, parties we would plan, friends we would invite over, purchases we would make, etc.  We’ve even used the phrase when referring to the next time we would do laundry or clean the bathroom.  Fortunately we are not funky people, so we haven’t put those last 2 off for the last 35 days, so don’t get all grossed out.

So here is my advice for all builders - do not lie and tell your clients what you think they want to hear.  Tell them the truth, plus a few extra days for things that get screwed up.  Otherwise they will be flaming pissed and super picky when it comes to the walk thru.

On a side note, I’m also pissed that because we’ve changed this closing date so many times, I’ve had to re-schedule utility installations and what not TWICE now.  I have lost 6 hours of my life while on hold with the satellite company, the water people, the moving company, the power company and the phone company.  That is not counting the 5 hours of time I spent with the cable company trying to convince them that my new address really is a valid address.

Okay, that is my rant for today.  I sure hope it helps me out some, because I am not a pleasant woman today.

Hahahaha, there’s a little Britney for your morning.  What I mean is that I ran 2 miles again this morning.  Only this time it was torture.  I struggled through the first 1/2 mile.  Then I decided maybe I should just stop at a mile and not kill myself.  Then at one mile I realized my legs weren’t wearing down and I just needed to battle through it.  And battle I did.  When that 2 miles rolled around I could have done a happy dance, if I weren’t so exhausted.  I’m glad I made it through the 2 miles, but I’m not really looking forward to my next round.  Thank goodness for a day off tomorrow and then 2 days of ballet to help me procrastinate.