Getting in Shape

I just tried Denise Austin's new 3 week boot camp workout tonight and let me tell you, it was killer. Now, I haven't really been keeping up with my workouts like I should this past month due to illness/exhaustion/laziness, but still! It's a tough 20 minutes of alternating cardio and weight lifting and actually comes broken down into 2 workouts that are kettle bell inspired and can be combined to create one super-tough 40 minute "boot camp" workout. The idea is to do the easier 20 minutes 4x the first week, the harder 20 minutes 4x the second week, and then the whole thing 4x the third week. In light of the upcoming new year and the inevitable resolution to lose weight and tone up, I decided to start this year's resolution early. I had previously tried it on Saturday while very hungry and very tired and was not able to do it. In light of that, I am counting today as the first day of this workout adventure. So, for the record...I need to do it 3 more times this week! I'll be posting little notes here to let you know how it goes.

Back to Business

I've done a lot of soul searching in the last 24 hours and I'm sure there will plenty more in days to come, but I've decided (with Spencer's support) that BeautiConrol is more worthy of being a top priority than I've made it. I really want it to be a viable option for when we finally have children. Though I swore I'd never want to have children (I also swore I would never get married), I really can't imagine leaving them every day and going to work. I have grown to love the idea of being a stay at home mom and taking care of our house and family while Spencer does most of the bread winning. However, I also want to contribute to the income so that we can be better equipped to take care of our family. Plus, I really love spa-ing and pampering other women. The bottom line: I really enjoy the business (even though I'm insanely unorganized right now) and I want the option to quit my job and stay home when our yet-to-be-conceived child comes into existence. Until then, I will continue to work, finish up my master's degree, run the house, and work BeautiControl part time. The bright side is that I should be done with my masters by the end of July! Wohoo!

No Picture=No Fun

One of the reasons I started this side-blog (and didn't feel the need to tell anyone about it) is because I wanted to flex my creative writing muscles a little bit. I used to be a prolific reader and writer and college (and then work while doing graduate school, being a wife, and running a home business) killed it for me. So, I thought I could keep up with my writing skills if I at least took the time to occasionally jot down some notes on our medical student life or whatever. However, I have noticed that some people don't want to read anything someone writes and would rather complain about the boring lack of photos. I am not a picture taker and can't remember the last time I pulled out the camera to snap a few, let alone actually downloaded any. Despite this, I feel compelled to post a picture since this blog has become a veritable fortress of text. So, for your viewing pleasure:
you get nothing! That's right folk! The network is down so no photo! Better luck next time. :)

5 Day Weekends Are No Fun When You're Sick

Normally I somewhat enjoy my sick days because it's a chance to be home alone for a change, even if I am just stuck on the couch or in bed. This week though, I've lost 3 days to illness and I'm not enjoying it. I literally have been able to do nothing for almost a week now and it's not cool. I blame early mornings and late nights due to Spencer's weird OB rotations. At any rate, it would have been nice to use my sick time to get some laundry done, decorate for Christmas, work on BeautiControl or school, or anything. Instead....just sleeping or vegged out on the couch. Ba humbug and cough cough!

Crisis (somewhat) averted

It would seem that my concerns for Sunday's meeting were not needed. After getting permission to change the songs that I couldn't prep in time, I felt OK enough to not be too nervous to play. However, I had to pick Spencer up from St. Joe's that morning so I didn't make it to church until about half way through sacrament meeting. It's a long story, but I'll sum it up here. On weekends, call ends at 8am so I dutifully awoke early and prepared for church so that I could both be on time to get him and be on time to church. I even made him an egg white omelet with mozzarella cheese despite the fact that I couldn't eat because it was fast Sunday. I got to the hospital on time, only to find that he was no where to be found. I must have called him 6 times, had him paged twice, and even ventured into the hospital to look for him but I couldn't get far because I don't have a badge. At any rate, he was called into an emergency c-section and had left his pager with someone who chose to not respond to pages so he couldn't tell me what had happened. I was more worried than upset because I thought he had fallen asleep and I had no way to get back and wake him up, plus I knew I'd never make it to church on time to play at 8:45 when 8:30 rolled around and I still hadn't heard from him. Fortunately, my good friend Alicia was able to cover for me and everything worked out. So I guess I didn't really need to be worried about playing those songs, now did I? I guess I just have to worry about all the up coming weeks now...

Organ Woes (the musical kind)

Does anyone else ever get frustrated with their calling in church or is it just me? Ever since I learned to play the organ for my laurel project in high school I feel like I've had some sort of musical calling. There are a couple of distinctions that come to mind--family home evening group leader and family history consultant--but other than those brief blips, it's pretty much just been playing some keyboarded instrument (or no instrument because they didn't have one even though they had called me to play one). Currently, I'm playing the organ for sacrament meeting and have been since last January. It's not a bad calling. I know a lot of the hymns reasonably well and it's kind of fun to sit on the stand and keep up with my musical talents. However, my recent frustrations with it center on the fact that I do not get to pick the music and the person who picks the music chooses not to pick it until the absolute last second. We're talking day before picking here, not several days in advance--I can handle several days in advance. I have to cut her some slack because the bishopric is notorious for picking the topic and assigning speakers the week of the meeting and we typically want the music to match the theme. However, it was made clear on several occasions that the latest I could accept the song list would be by the Wednesday before that week. At any ate, I'm just not sure what to do at this point. I've tried reminding her to pick the songs earlier. I've tried praising her when she remembers to do so. I've even tried mentioning it to the powers at be. But what do I do when I get a list of songs at 4pm on a Saturday and can't play half of them very well? Especially in light of the fact that a member from the 70 will be present at tomorrow's meeting? Should I stumble through it, which will make me look like I'm not caring enough to fulfill my own calling, or should I refuse to play and just pick my own songs? Mind you, the program has most likely been printed at this point. I just don't know. If this was the first time it had happened, I might be a little more understanding. But this is the norm, not the exception and I'm sick of it. What would you do?

Circadian Rhythms

About 2 weeks ago, Spencer started his OB rotation. For some reason, they feel compelled to make him come in at 5 in the morning. At first I resisted. I stayed in bed for nearly 2 hours after he'd get up so I could get some extra sleep, even though I always woke up a little when he was getting ready to go. As someone who, aside from a 4 year stint of early morning seminary, typically can't drag myself out of bed to save my life before 7am, I convinced myself that I just couldn't do it. I justified it further by the fact that I have been dead tired since this rotation started and have had and almost constant sleep headache to boot. And then last Sunday Spencer had to go in early for 24 hour call and I had to take him because I needed to use the car to get to church. By the time I got back home from driving him, it was almost time for me to get up anyway, so I just stayed up and did things that I never seem to have time to do like read my scriptures and lounge around in the serene quiet of the morning. Monday I awoke early again so I could pick him up, but Tuesday I fell back on old habits. This morning though, I decided when I heard him getting ready that I would get up. It was so nice to see him off this morning and to have the extra 2 hours to get ready for work. I read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, took a leisurely shower, and surfed the web. I did most of it from bed, but hey, you have to start with baby steps. Eventuality I hope to work up to a point where I will be up and working out in that period as well. I guess only time will tell.