Sweet puppy

Obviously Andy is not superstitious.

Thanks Global Warming!

Today was super gorgeous.  Above and beyond what I would expect for winter in NoDak on January 26th, that's for sure.  I think it may have been 40 degrees, so most of the snow and ice that was left over has melted.  I'm pretty sure it's going to snow tonight, but that's okay.  I won't complain because today was awesome.  I ended up taking the dogs for a long walk this afternoon (like I said in my earlier post).  I wanted to wear them out since we don't get to take walks everyday now, since it's way too cold some days.  I ended up walking them out of our neighborhood and to the community center which has a path around the outside that's just over a mile long.  We were halfway through the mile long path when we turned a corner so we were walking along the street of a busy-ish road (for our town, anyways).  At this point, we'd already been walking in the sun for about half an hour, and the thick knit mittens I'd worn were starting to make my hands hot.  I took the mittens off, shoving them in my jacket pockets along with the plastic Walmart bags I had in case the dogs pooped.  Just to give you a picture, my jacket has front angled pockets that hit right at the bottom of my ribcage.  In each pocket I had one mitten and one plastic bag, so I had two grapefruit sized bulges protruding from my midsection.  I legitimately had a solid C cup worth of plastic bags and knitwear shoved into my pockets.  I noticed as a truck was driving by that the driver (a younger guy) did a double take when he saw me.  At first glance I think he thought he'd spotted a girl with a great rack walking around, but then his second look was one of horror, as he realized that what he assumed to be breasts needed some sort of steel bra to support what was sagging so horrifically.  The look on his face was priceless.  I thought it was a pretty great unintentional prank until I realized that the reason he thought that was my full pockets were my chest was because nothing else was showing through my puffy jacket.  Guess the joke's on me since I'm built like a 7th grade boy.

Here's a great example of why Dana and I are friends.  I got an excited text from her today, asking if I'd seen the new Elie Saab Spring Collection.  I had barely finished the text before I was lunging at the iPad, pulling up the pictures as quick as possible.  It felt like Christmas morning.  I was definitely not disappointed.  Just like any Elie Saab collection, I'm totally in love with each dress and wish I had the money and/or occasion to wear them.  Here's what needs to happen.  Somehow I need to become famous for something so I can wear those dresses for free.  Realistically, though, I don't see celebrity status in my future, so it looks like all the pressure is on Jacob to become a big-wig at his company so we can become society people.  I'll do a Gala or benefit every night if I get to wear one of those dresses.  I don't care what the cause is.  It could be H.O.O.P for all I care.

Anyway, you should check out the collection.  My favorites are the ice blue ones, but with a little tweaking, I would kill to wear that wedding dress. 

Isaac update:  I got to Face Time with the brave boy today.  He couldn't talk and he seemed to be uncomfortable, but he was really brave and everything went well with the surgery.  My sister said he was a Jello monster, so maybe tomorrow she can use some crazy cookie cutters or something to make the jello even more exciting for him.  Thanks for all the prayers and please continue to pray that his recovery goes well and his pain lessens daily.

I squealed with excitement today as I was coming home from work a different way and discovered that the shopping center in front of my house is going to have a Little Caesars!!  I can't even imagine how many Hot N Ready's we'll get from there, but it's probably going to be more than 15 but less than 75.  I know not everyone likes Little Caesar's, but I could eat Crazy Bread every day of the year.  Brinson and I were talking about pizza places a few months back and he asked me what I thought of Little Caesar's.  When I told him I loved it, he was open-mouthed and speechless.  After a few seconds he goes "You're kidding, right?"  He then proceeded to tell me (direct quote) "To me, it's just not quality pizza."  When did this 12 year old become such a foodie?!  I think he was judging me for loving them so much, but I can't help it.  Buddy, when you're old and wise, you'll appreciate the beauty of a $5 pizza.  Also exciting is that going next door to the Little Caesar's is Pita Pit.  I'm mostly excited because I know that it makes Tom jealous that I'll be like 2 minutes walking distance from a Pita Pit.  I can't wait to tell him the first time we go there and I get a Chicken Crave.  WITHOUT SPROUTS.

I know him well enough to know that if he's reading this, he just sighed, rolled his eyes and said "you're stupid."  Love you too, Tom!!!!!

If you notice weird things happening with the blog over the next couple of days it's because I'm trying to change the background.  I switched it for a little bit earlier, but it got super messed up and was irritating me, so I tried to switch it back.  Somehow half the page was frozen into the old template, and then it faded into the new one, like my blog was having some sort of stroke.  I'll try to get it sorted out this weekend (in between all the chores Jacob already said he wants to do), so hopefully there will be a new and exciting look to the blog soon! 

Poor Guy

The boys and I took a long walk, an hour long and about 2.5 miles. Poor Andy can't even believe how exhausted he is. My mail carrier just called me while he's sitting in front of my house, so now the poor puppy feels like he needs to be a guard dog and watch the front if the house, but he doesn't even have the energy to lift his head or bark.

FYI

I can hear Inception playing on the projector downstairs. That's two days in a row, folks.

Post Bootcamp Jello Muscles

Today I went to boot camp for the fourth time in as many weeks, and again I find myself exhausted. In a one hour class, I wouldn't have thought it was possible to do 200+ squats, but we did. We did a lot of work with the body bar, which I always struggle with because I'm such a wimp with weights. Since I struggle in the class and get fatigued really quickly, I was feeling pretty good about myself about 30-40 minutes in as I'm dragging my 9 pound body bar up and down the gym floor while doing lunges. That is I felt pretty good until I realized the lady next to me was using a 24 pound body bar. 24 POUNDS. I seriously don't know how she was doing that. I also don't know how she managed to carry it back out of the gym and upstairs when class was over. I came very close to stopping someone on the stairs and saying "excuse me, virile young man, would you trouble me for a hand and take this body bar from me before I fall backwards down these stairs and crush my brain with my free weights?". I didn't want to be a baby though, so I made it upstairs (barely) and try to play it cool like my body didn't feel as though it had been drained of its blood and replaced with pudding. I was pulling it off until I tripped over my own feet and lunged forward, ramming the person in front of me with my 9 lb body bar. Whoops, sorry for the blood hemorrhage, friend. That'll heal I'm sure.

I found myself very distracted during boot camp today by some girl who wasn't understand the meaning behind my dirty looks. 

For some reason this girl, who I've never seen at the gym before, decided she needed to be the cheerleader for our class.  Like I said before, this is a pretty tough, exhausting class, and anytime we get a break for water, all anyone can do is barely make it to the drinking fountain to get a sip.  In between plyo moves or weight sets, she'd just randomly yell out "alright great job!" or "YES!  We can do it!"  We were in the last fifteen minutes of class which is normally abs followed by stretching.  We were doing bicycles and the instructor was counting down so we knew when to stop.  She gets to 1 and this moron starts clapping for all of us, so proud that we were able to finish.  Immediately the instructor tells us to reverse the bicycles, an obvious progression during an ab circuit, and it seemed to take the girl totally off guard.  She was so busy clapping and cheering for her neighbors she missed half of the reverse bicycles and was totally flustered trying to catch up.  I just don't understand the point of the enthusiasm.  Yes, we were able to do a minute of ankle biters.  I don't need your approval.  While giving her dirty looks, I noticed that for almost every move we did, she could only do about 75% of what the rest of the class was doing.  It was like she was stopping to give herself a rest so that she'd have the energy to clap and cheer for the rest of us when we all finished.  If she's there next week, I might just ask her to tape her hands together before class starts.

Okay I'm soliciting all of your prayers for my sweet nephew Isaac.  He has to have his tonsils taken out tomorrow, and I know it will be no big deal and he'll be just fine, but he could use some prayers.  He's super brave and I'm sure he's not worried at all--he probably thinks he's a total baller for missing school and getting a bunch of cards in the mail.  And he definitely is a baller.  Pray for his parents too, since I can't imagine the stress of knowing your child needs even minor surgery.  It's stressing me out and he's not my little guy.  Love you, Isaac!  Feel better soon!!!!!

This picture is from a few years ago-he looks so little!!!  But I love it so much I had to use it.  He's a brave, sweet little guy and I hope the surgery is quick and painless.

Ha!

Told ya! This picture doesn't do the projector justice. The Dickinson theater just closed, too, but it ain't no thang. A got a theater in my house now dawg. If only I could get an advanced copy of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...

Jacobs Child

I thought I'd give a quick picture update of what Jacob is doing. I think the day he finishes this and gets it working for some sporting event will be the single greatest day of his life. Perhaps mine too, since hopefully he'll be so mesmerized by the projector that he won't be doing endless chores and I will be happily watching tv by myself upstairs. Prediction: he watches Inception greater than 8 times in the next two weeks.