Sweat, attempted pet suicide and rocks

After a hectic weekend, complete with a Saturday of Softball practice, birthday part #1 (ballet!) and birthday party #2 (inflatable jump houses!), a late bedtime and games with the family...well WHEW!

I didn't get to exercise until today! This morning, I slapped on the workout clothes, peeked in the mirror (I'm pretty sure my muffin top is shrinking!) and turned on the EA Active Wii game. For the first time, I put it on HARD, and worked up a serious sweat. I only did 20 minutes, so the calorie burn isn't super high. However, as hard as I worked, I'm 99% certain I'll be sore tomorrow, and that makes me say WOOOOO!!

After my shower, kiddo and I were cleaning out her fish tank. We've had Betta fish before, and they're jumpers so you have to always have a lid over their water, or they'll in inadvertently commit fish suicide. Well, right now we have "cloud neons" and we'd previously thought they'd had babies. Kiddo and I had looked and swore we saw microscopic fish in with the adults. We waited to clean the tank so the babies could grow a bit...but we haven't seen them since. Today was finally the day, it was GROSS in the tank and I was worried the adult fish wouldn't survive.

I dipped out a cup of the disgusting water, put the adults in it, and started searching for the babies. I called kiddo in, she's got the eagle eyes, and we searched and searched - held the tank up to the sunlight and everything...no babies anywhere. We finally came to the very sad conclusion that the adults had eaten them. I'm not sure this is the case, but I didn't see any tiny fish bodies floating around, so that's all I can figure.

Kiddo peeks on the adults, and suddenly I hear:

"Mom, where's the other fish?"

Um, excuse me!?? Sure enough, there's only one fish in the cup...there were 2 in there not five minutes before!!

We finally see a movement on the floor, and there he is! Flopping around desperately on the floor, gasping for air. We finally trapped him in the net and got him back into the water...a little worse for the wear, but dang, he scared us!

He has since returned to mostly normal. I do believe his fin was injured in the jump and rescue, but he's managed to figure out how to swim fairly evenly and I believe he'll be fine.

After the dramatic near suicide, kiddo went with a friend to a local rock and gem show. Sounds kind of eh for kids, right? Not so! My kiddo has always adored and collected rocks, and so this is right up her alley. Hubby took the girls, and they came back SO excited about the BAGS of rocks they got while there. From beautiful polished stones to sliced gorgeous translucent rocks, to thunder eggs, these girls are in heaven.

After heading outside with a hammer, goggles and hubby, they came back in with handfuls of crystals lining the rocks they'd cracked open.

SO COOL, and such a great way to wrap up the weekend!!

XOXOXO

Mish mash I was taking a bath

Ok, not really, but I love that song, so I decided to make a little play on the lyrics

So, the big news first -

I LOST 2 INCHES OFF MY WAIST!!! 

I am SO excited  The scale hasn't moved much, but as I've learned from the fitness website I use, that's not always a sign that things aren't changing. I do find it interesting that my waist dropped as it did this last week or so, since it's a week where I haven't been able to do much exercise. You have to be extremely careful when allowing a foot tattoo to heal, and so I can't wear socks. It's still barely 60F and cold and rainy and who knows what else here, and I'm traipsing around in sandals because I can't have anything rubbing on my tattoo yet.

A week of painfully cold feet isn't fun, I'll tell you that! My other foot tattoo (as yet unplanned, but I'm sure will happen) will be in the summer so I don't run into this issue.

ANYWAY - so I've done a few barefoot workouts with my EA Active, and hoo boy, that sucker kicks my butt :) I did what felt like a decently easy workout for 30 minutes one day, and I was totally sore the next day! 

Last night I went back to Bikram Yoga, planning to sit out a few of the poses where we're sitting on our feet, etc. Well...somehow I forgot that the majority of the floor exercises are sitting on your feet! I did a good half of the routine, but it kicked my butt. I think maybe I'm starting to come down with a cold, because a) I've been feeling icky during the day anyway, and b) I had to sit out way more of the poses than I wanted to. I was dizzy and nauseous (! for the first time!), and not sure why. I made sure to eat well but stop eating two hours before, drank tons of water....no idea.

I was exhausted and sore afterward, which confused me a little since I was only participating about half the time. I love our instructor though - she's so encouraging and repeatedly told us not to judge ourselves based on what our neighbor was doing, what we think we should be able to do, what we did yesterday, etc. 

Today I will go back, and today I will do my best to release my expectations and go with what I can do. Today I will be focused. today I will not worry about the fact that I'm in the front row (going to place my mat there again today, to push my boundaries).

I love that each day we can start again!

I've been trying to do better with my food choices, watching portions and eating more balanced meals and snacks, and I'm coming almost into line with what SP is reccomending for me. The calorie count makes sense for me, I eat until satisfied, then I track and notice that most days I'm falling exactly in the range of calories they're reccomending. In addition, the balance of carbs, proteins and fats is getting better! I used to load up on fat fat fat fat....not so anymore!! 

On the haircolor front, I've kind of given up LOL I still don't like my haircolor, but a friend linked me to a blog with details of a thing called a Shampoo Train, where you can gently fade color from your hair. I can't do the prescribed routine of 4-6 treatments in a day, but I'm using the principles to try to fade my hair a little each day. We'll see, but I'm working on just coming to terms with it for now.

In other news, I think I'm going to grow my hair out again! Before New Year's (when I hacked it all off), my hair was below my bra strap. It was a lot of work, but it was gorgeous and I felt kind of sexy with it. I like my short, sassy hair, but as always happens when I cut it, I'm tired of it and I want my sexy swishy long hair back. Good thing I'm eating well and taking vitamins! It'll grow back healthy and strong, just like me!

Watching Tangled with the kiddo doesn't help with the long hair WANT either LOL

Introducing KL Photography!

I am so happy to announce the arrival of the KL Photography website! We are officially up and running, and you can book me to photograph your event, wedding, or portraits with a click of your mouse.

Check it out

I have always loved photography, and I can thank my dear dad for that. Growing up, there was ALWAYS a camera in hand, my dad lugging the ginormous 80's video camera around with us to document everything, and and pictures galore. I have at least 2 photo albums of pictures of me and my friends from middle school alone! Dad made sure I always had access to a camera to document my life, and I still remember that thrill of knowing our pictures were ready at Costco to be picked up.

Now I shoot with a digital camera, but the thrill is still the same. I can do a quick check on the little screen as we're shooting to ensure exposure and composition are what I'm wanting, but there's nothing like that excitement of downloading the pictures to be seen on the big screen in front of me!

Just a few weeks ago, my best friend and I shot a school fundraiser together (amazing to shoot with my best friend, 

WOW!), and even though we'd been running around like chickens with our heads cut off for 6 hours, as soon as I got home I just had to download and look at all the pictures I'd taken.

Bleary eyed, exhausted photographer looking at an 800+ picture slideshow at 10pm? The thrill is only slightly dulled by the fatigue! I love how pictures encapsule so much for us: they hold memories, sounds, people and smells from the event you captured in that one shot. This is my absolute favorite aspect of photography - capturing memories and being able to look at a photo later and remember exactly where we were, who was there, and what was going on when that shutter snapped closed for an instant.

To give you an example, here is one of my favorite shots, taken during our Belarus trip in August:

Isn't she just gorgeous? This picture makes me smile every time, because Olya was goofing around here while Yuri (her husband) is out of frame to the right, marching dramatically toward her. They are a couple of goofballs, and it was so entertaining to watch them blow off steam while the official wedding photographer changed out some equipment. We were right by a lake, there was a soft breeze that was very welcome, it was a stifling 115 degrees F, and my camera was hot in my hands. Literally, I kept shutting it off because I was afraid it would overheat!

These are details that can get lost in the vortex of time and memories on thier own, but with a picture, it all comes rushing back in vivid, colorful detail, as if it had just occurred yesterday.

This is why I will forever be in debt to my father for his love of the camera, forever be in love with the camera, and forever love my husband for tolerating my shutterbug addiction!

If you'd like to see some of my work, check out my portfolio, and send me an email to set up a time to have your memories captured!

Haircolor FAIL

I wonder how long I have to wait to dye it again?

Ramblings and tidbits

I like to make lists, and I think this will be easiest way to lay out what I want to say here :)

- I can officially touch my toes, with my knees straight!

- I have progressed in the Camel Pose to having one hand on my heel! I've not been able to do this before, EVER! This is what most of my class looks like:

 

And here's the eventual goal for the pose:


- I attempted, and mostly held, Tree Pose for the first time on Friday!


- Saturday I noticed lots of little things in myself, easier bending to pick things up, better form in getting up from being on the floor with kiddo, and more little things that used to be struggles. I'm feeling stronger in my body, and it feels good.

- Sunday beheld me taking my first ever "run"! It's in quotes because I warmed up with a walk, then ran as far as I could, then powerwalked until I could run again. Since I didn't run the entire route, I figured it's not technically an official run yet. But, I did .85 miles in 10 minutes, which I feel good about, especially because I had serious headwind for more than half of it.

- During my "run", I didn't judge myself. This is HUGE - I have lots of negatives in my head all the time, and I was actually kind to myself, and happy with the bits I was able to do, instead of beating myself up about not being perfect.

- 10 minutes after I got back from the run, Shark Week started (ARGH!), so no more cardio until maybe tonight, if I feel better. On the bright side, I went to bed at 7pm, and mostly slept until my alarm at 5 this morning!

- Mom and I went to see The King's Speech on Sunday afternoon, and WOW. I mean !! That movie is just and I think everyone should see it. It's incredibly well done, the acting is flawless, and you're completely engrossed until the last moment. Highly, highly deserving of the awards it was showered with!

If you made it this far, congratulations for mucking through my crazy mind

I'm looking forward to doing some cardio again today, and getting back into a routine after a couple days off. I'm also thinking, now that I've started doing more intense workouts, that I'm going to change my goal to working out for 5 days a week, instead of 7. It is seemingly not realistic for me to go all out every day of the week at the higher intensity level, so I'm going to obey my body and throw in rest days!

and to you, my dear readers!