Spring has sprung!

The flowers are in bloom, the birds are chirping, the days are getting longer and Spring is in the air!

We even have new life in developing in the backyard

And Sadie loves spending the afternoons in the park

We hope you all are enjoying the beauty of the season!

It's hard work being this cute!

Happy Easter!

House renovation pictures

For some reason the post below wouldn't let me post pictures from the house renovations and I completely forgot about it until today. Here's the slideshow I promised in the first post

An afternoon in D.C.

Mike and I recently went to visit Memom in Alexandria and decided to take a day to play tourist in D.C. 

It was an overcast, chilly Saturday morning but we decided to seize the day! We hopped on the Metro and made our way towards Arlington National Cemetery first. We spent 3 hours walking around Arlington National Cemetery.  We made our way up the hill to see JFK and Jackie O's grave site at the eternal flame. Then we made our way further up the hill to Robert E. Lee's mansion and then across a field to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. We spent a lot of time at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. Watching a changing of the guards ceremony and a wreath laying ceremony and paying our respects to the soldiers whose names we will never know. After leaving the Tomb we headed down the hill to Lot 60. This is where a childhood friend of mine was laid to rest and I wanted to stop and see him. (You can read more about that visit here) Also, while we were visiting Lot 60 I wanted to stop and pay my respects to Virginia Beach's local Navy SEALS who died when their helicopter crashed in Afghanistan last year. At the end of our visit, we both decided that next time, we'll pay the money to take the tram because this place is HUGE!

After leaving Arlington National Cemetery, we got back on the metro and headed for the National Mall. As it turns out the day we were there was actually the day of the Cherry Blossom Kite Festival. As we stepped out of the Smithsonian Metro Station all we could see were kites. It was such a cool sight around the National Monument! After grabbing a quick lunch we were off to the Smithsonian Museum. First up was the Natural History Museum and then the American History Museum. You can see all of the pictures from our day in D.C. in the slideshow below.

A visit with a friend

Over the weekend I visited one of my oldest friends. He is one of those friends from the "old neighborhood." One of those friends from the days when life was still innocent and children listened to their parents. From the days when we, as children, thought we were invincible. From the days before life got busy and we had responsibilities. Before life got in the way...

In the weeks leading up to my visit with him I reminisced about old times. The days all of us kids spent running around the fields of our elementary school playing soccer until the sun went down. The days when "the old gang" would ride bikes to each others houses and the times we would run from house to house begging for ice cream money as the ice cream truck blared it's music through our neighborhood. Oh how we used to wish those days would never end...

As the years went on we found ourselves abandoning those fields and going off in different directions. We would see each other from time to time in the halls at school, during lunch or at church. We might occasionally run into each other in the mall or at a restaurant and would try our best to catch up with the little time we had to spare.

As time went on, we moved on...On to other groups of friends, relationships and different times. Things got to be more hectic and life got complicated. We all eventually moved out of the neighborhood and on to high school and eventually to college. We would see each other on campus and give each other a quick hug and catch up for a few minutes before heading off to the next class. We would update each other on what we knew of the people from the "old neighborhood" and promise to keep in touch. He joined the Army and got married and lived his life with honor and courage.

Until that day... that fateful day when he was wounded in Sadr City, Iraq while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. That was the day everything changed. No longer were we the innocent children from the soccer fields... at this moment we were adults and the war took one of our friends. When I heard the news I remember thinking about memories I hadn't thought about in years. Those days in the "old neighborhood"...those days with the "old gang."  Those memories hold a special place in my heart and those people are the reason those childhood memories continue to bring a smile to my face.

As I was preparing to visit my old friend, I couldn't help but think of those cherished memories again and one more time they brought a smile to my face. I can almost see him walking towards me with that beaming smile on his face and I can almost feel the rush of running up in down those fields for hours on end with my dear childhood friends. I wish I had done a better job of keeping in touch. I wish life didn't always get in the way.

I visited my friend and I hope he knows I was there...

Dear Google can I get an update please?

I recently searched our address on Google maps.When the street view picture came up I could not believe the picture they showed for our house. I was so shocked by the difference I couldn't help but take a picture of our house now and compare the two.

How many differences can you find in these pictures?

Google Street View picture from 2007:

Now:

What's a girl gotta do to get Google to update their picture???

Spontaneity Fail

I've realized lately that I do a lot of things on a whim...I guess I've always thought of it as being spontaneous and most of the time I actually enjoy my spontaneity. Well a couple of weeks ago that spontaneity signed me up for something I didn't really think through.

Not so long ago, I used to love working out. I loved the feeling it gave me, the energy I had when I was done and knowing that I was getting into shape and pushing myself harder than I thought was possible. Since my alarm clock now goes off at 2:45 a.m. I find that I'm tired ALL.THE.TIME and I just don't have the get-up-and-go that I used to. I've also found that I'm gaining some unwanted pounds in areas I've never had to worry about before. 

Because of this I am desperately trying to get back into shape and convince myself that I like working out again. I've been taking Zumba classes a couple of times a week, but decided I needed more. So on the way out of Zumba class a couple of weeks ago I passed by the personal trainer's desk and decided to stop and ask about the service. I knew I still had 3 "free" sessions I never used, so it was about time I cashed those in. I was just hoping to learn new exercises that would help me tone and flatten the areas where I need, er, want to see some improvement.

For my first training session I showed up ready to work out and excited to learn new exercises. I meet my trainer who is this 20-something guy who looks like he just stepped out of his cap and gown and strolled into the gym. He tells me he works out 4 times a day and eats 8000 calories a day during the winter. Okay, so my first thought was this guy has NO LIFE and my second thought was okay, maybe he can teach me some new modern exercises. Well it turned out to be a complete bust. I ended up sitting at a computer going over nutrition for an hour with Sir Beefcake. Now I'll be the first to admit, I am not good in the nutrition department. Yeah, sure, I can read labels like everyone else, but when it comes to crunching numbers, calorie counting, etc. I'm no good at it. My ADD always gets in the way somewhere between the riboflavin and the sulfur dioxide on the ingredient label. So then I figured maybe he can at least give me some idea of foods I can eat to work towards becoming healthier. Umm, no. He basically told me that everything I am eating is bad and that I should stop. Stop eating bread, not even wheat. Stop eating the premixed oatmeal packets, only the untouched oats. Drink 3 protein shakes a day, only eat fruit on days you don't work out and make sure you eat almonds...um, slow down Sir Beefcake?! I'll get right on that and we'll see how much of that I can fit in between now and the next session.

Yesterday I had my second session. Now keep in mind, I'm not trying to bulk up (hence the reason I refuse to drink the 3 protein shakes a day he told me to drink last week), I'm just trying to tone up. So I get there and he tells me to hop on the treadmill and "warm up"...okay, whatever. Then we go upstairs where he makes me do squats...no sweat. Then he puts the weight bar on my back and tells me to do more squats...again, no problem. Then he puts weights on the bar and tells me to do squats. Now this is right up my alley...I'm learning new things! FINALLY. After the squats we go over to the free weights and do lunges, but these aren't just any lunges, no, these are the lunges with 20 LB weights. Has he lost his mind? I've never done lunges with anything more than 10 lb weights. AND isn't the method to toning, less weight, more reps?!? But, I'll go along with it because, after all, Sir Beefcake is the "trainer". After 2 sets of lunges on each leg, it's over to the lower body dead lifts. I know I'm supposed to be working my hamstrings during this exercise, but again the weight is so heavy I can hardly lift the bar once I drop it past my knees. I complained a little bit and he said this is what he was here for...I can see I'm not getting anywhere so it might be best if I just keep my mouth shut for here on out. After the dead lifts it was over to the weight bench for dumbbell bent over rows. Now this one was just ridiculous. I've done this exercise more times than I can count and I've never used weights more than 5-10lbs. Not because I can't, just because I'm not trying to bulk up. (Remember the less weight, more reps theory?) So Sir Beefcake has me use 20 lb weights (again!). He can't be serious, oh, but, he was! After 2 sets on each arm of those, we're off to do abs. This one I won't even talk about because he knocked me off the ball trying to prove to me that my abs needed work. Well, no #$% Sherlock. Why else would I be here?

After 30 minutes of exercises he sat me down at the computer (the same one we spent an hour on last week) and went over my BMI, my fat tissue and lean tissue measurements and he was even nice enough to show me a digital image of what my body looks like with my current measurements. Then he showed me what my body will look like when I lose 12 lbs. (Oh.my.God. Does Beefcake really want me to lose 12 lbs? Little does he know I haven't weighed that since I was in middle school.) And then he tells me it's going to cost $350/mo. for him to show me these results. HA! Okay...

Can I tell you that I'm over-the-moon thrilled about what my third and final session might have in store for me next week? As far as my workout from yesterday, I'm pretty sure it's going to be at least next week before I am able to walk without a limp. Thanks for that, Beefcake.