June Happiness Project - Done!

June was easy to "Get Serious about Play".

Our trip was the perfect place to embrace living in the moment. Getting up, deciding what to do and off we go. We made some wrong turns, wandered aimlessly and tried a ton of foods we've never had here.

I was able to really let go and experience life rather than just getting through the day (sometimes unsuccessfully). It felt amazing to be happy and relaxed.

Live in the moment

• Stop looking at the future - hard to do, but I think I looked less into the future than I do while I'm here
• Make a plan and forget about it until later. 
• Live TODAY

Find more fun

• Stop doing things that just aren't fun out of obligation. 
• Find those things I have fun doing, and do them more

Go off the path

• Try new foods, new places
• Buy a french book to read - Didn't buy one, but I did always have the french menu in restaurants
• Change the routine

Bonjour! Hello! I'm Back!

Our trip to France was amazing. There are no words to describe exactly how I feel about that country and all the places we went. Life there is so different from here in a lot of better ways. I know it was vacation brain and seeing it through those eyes, but they are far more social than here.
We spent 2.5 weeks (19 days) with each other, 24/7. It was really wonderful and I love that we can travel together so well.

We flew direct from Calgary to Paris. A nice long 9h 12m flight. We left in the afternoon and arrived in the morning the next day because of the 9 hour time difference. I am terrible at sleeping on planes but managed to get a couple hours in at least. I did end up watching Les Miserables since Frenchie hasn't wanted to see it.

Things I had to get used to:

• Eating light for breakfast - Cafe au lait, croissant / pain du chocolat
• Eating late for lunch
• Eating a late dinner - the majority of the restaurants don't open until 7:30pm and they usually don't start filling up until around 8:30-9pm. Very strange for this 6pm eater. 
• Eating BREAD! Yes. I could eat bread and pasta over there with NO symptoms like I get here. I miss it already. 
• Dogs are welcome - Everywhere. If they aren't, there is a sign. It really made me miss the dogs while we were away.

That was pretty much the extent of it. Eating (which is a big deal for me for blood sugar levels) really threw me for a loop. Once my body adjusted to the time changes I was set. There was always something to snack on and wine to drink. We stopped if our feet were sore for a cafe or macarons.

We have over 1600 photos and I have finally gotten them all onto the computer. With so many pics I can't pick my favourites so I will do a blog post for each location we went to. In total we stayed in 5 different places around France. Each one was different from the previous and allowed us to see a lot of the West side of France. I keep telling Frenchie we'll have to go back and see the East side and dip into Italy for a bit.

SQUEEE!! France is almost here!

So close! And reading a book set in Paris is really making me have travel fever. Just over a month to go. May is a long month it seems but I hope it goes by quickly.

The Hot-air balloon ride is paid for and booked. Now to just pray for perfect flight conditions.
We booked our wine tour in Bordeaux. I can't wait to enjoy the sites and meet the winemakers.
Tickets to Versailles are also booked. We didn't want to take a tour guide and be confined to a group so we opted to buy the Versailles passport. It gives us access to all the ground, palace and Marie Antoinette's farm. We'll be able to take the train there, do our own thing and then train back. We decide how long to stay which is much more relaxing.
The Eiffel Tower tickets are booked. We opted to book tickets for the lift so that we don't have to wait in line. It will be the last thing we see in Paris, at night. The city will be beautiful with all the lights and the sunset. Very romantic, non?
The train tickets are also booked. We are taking the train less than we thought because of our timing, but it will work out great regardless. We had to add one more day for a car rental but I think driving from Carcassonne to Marseille will be lovely.

Now I have to learn how to use our new camera lens and start going through my clothes to figure out what to take and what not to. We're only allowed one suitcase each for 2+ weeks so it will be a lot of figuring out what I can wear more than once to maximize space. Thankfully we have a couple places that have laundry so that will help.

Things to book:
Buy Louvre tickets

Things to buy:
lightweight dinner jacket for Frenchie
Euros
European SIM card for phone - buy when we're there
Possibly new shoes for walking

What is already booked:
Direct Flights - Air Transat
Accommodations - Caen, Vouvray, Bordeaux, Carcassonne, Marseille, Paris
Car Rental - Peugot 208
Le Crazy Horse - Paris Cabaret
Calanques Boat Tour - Marseille
Train Passes
Eiffel Tower lift tickets

Hot-air Balloon Ride - Loire Valley
Versaille passport

Wine Tour - Bordeaux

What we've bought:
Packing cubes - saves space and separates dirty clothes from clean
Extra memory cards for camera
Camera backpack
Travel tripod (gift for Christmas)

GPS app for phone - thinking google will be fine

zoom camera lens
plug in converter
hidden money pouch
Suitcase locks

Check check check! Getting closer

France is coming in another couple months and I'm getting more and more excited (if that's even possible)
We have booked our flights, booked all our accommodations and have since booked several tours. There are a few biggies left, but for the most part I feel pretty good about where we are with the planning.

Things to book:
Wine Tour - Bordeaux
Train Passes
Eiffel Tower lift tickets
Versaille passport
Hot-air Balloon Ride - Loire Valley (waiting for confirmation)

Things to buy:
zoom camera lens
lightweight dinner jacket for Frenchie
GPS app for phone
European SIM card for phone
plug in converter
Euros
hidden money pouch

What is already booked:
Direct Flights - Air Transat
Accommodations - Caen, Vouvray, Bordeaux, Carcassonne, Marseille, Paris
Car Rental - Peugot 208
Le Crazy Horse - Paris Cabaret
Calanques Boat Tour - Marseille

What we've bought:
Packing cubes - saves space and separates dirty clothes from clean
Extra memory cards for camera
Camera backpack
Travel tripod (gift for Christmas)

January 2013

Highlights of the Month

Cancun, Mexico Wedding

Dreams Cancun Resort & Spa

Frenchie and I

Last Brother-In-Law gets married!!

Congratulations Robyn and Marc!

Photo by: Dean Sanderson Weddings

Their wedding was so low key and beautiful. Had an amazing time with family and friends. Meeting up at a resort is definitely the best family reunion I can think of. We will be heading to their current home this weekend for the wedding reception to celebrate with everyone who wasn't at the wedding in Mexico. Should be a fun event!

I did a lot of soul-searching this month and I believe 2013 will be a year of doing. 

Life is too short to be unhappy. 

You're never too old to make changes. 

Spend time on the things that make you happy.

There is so much in store for us this year.

I had originally planned on reading 40 books again this year. I have to revise it to 30 in 2013. A few of the things I have up my sleeve for this year will cut into my reading time greatly. While they are still books, they are of the textbook variety.

Book Recap

You have read 3 books toward your goal of 30 books.

Great work, you're 1 book (2%) ahead of schedule.

What I Read

Days of Blood & Starlight(Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #2) by Laini Taylor 

2 Stars - review here

The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin 

3 Stars - review here

Shadows (Dark Touch, #1) by Amy Meredith 

2 Stars - review here

What I'm Currently Reading

The Evolution of Mara Dyer(Mara Dyer, #2) by Michelle Hodkin

Across the Universe (Across the Universe #1) by Beth Revis

Monthly Book Spending:

My plan this year is to try and use the library, borrow from friends/family and read what I already have on my shelf. There are currently 48 books on my physical to-read shelf. I've run out of room to put new ones so they old ones must be read!

Spent: $16.99

Saved: $16.97

France: Troglodyte Dwelling

Have you ever stayed in a Troglodyte home? Me either. But I will be!

We have started booking accommodations for France. It’s still about 8 months away, but definitely something to do early. Several of the apartments we were looking at have already been booked. Seems like a lot of people have the same idea. The difference between booking a B&B or apartment from a hotel is the lack of rooms. On average there are about 1 – 5 rooms at a B&B and only one apartment. When there are limited fantastic ones you fall in love with, you book them as soon as you can.

We have booked in the Loire Valley. We wanted to do a B&B in this area and stay outside the city of Tours. We will have a car and will drive to the chateaus rather than do tours. This will give us a little more flexibility  We will be staying in a troglodyte B&B, Les Sentinières. What exactly does that mean? It’s a cave. A really, really nice cave. We booked a suite and it’s stunning! The webpage has a ton of pictures so check them out.

picture from http://www.chambre-hote-sentinieres.com

My hope is that by November we will have all our accommodations booked. Then we focus on Christmas, and brother-in-laws wedding. Other than the accommodations we can’t book much else until around 3 months out. That doesn't mean there isn't research to do and plans to form.

Let the planning begin! FRANCE

It’s time to start planning for THE VACATION. This is THE VACATION that we’ve been talking about for a while (2 years??). We have finally nailed down dates and I’M SO EXCITED!!!

Frenchie and I are finally going to France. I cannot wait! 2.5 weeks of blissful travelling through France. Yes it’s not going to be all awesome and happy and stress-free. I’ve travelled enough to know that those things never happen. At least not when you’re traveling with me. I can find the stress points in anything and everything. The great thing is we have plenty of time to reduce the amount of pain points as much as we can.

First pain point is always flights. I hate having to change airlines, change planes, go through customs in two different countries, you name it. While I enjoy people watching in airports, there is ultimately never enough time in between flights to do so unless you have a LONG lay over and then it sucks for other reasons. We’ve fixed that: Direct flights from our wonderful city to Paris. Now let’s pick one point of stress that could occur here. It’s a 9.5 hour flight. :O That is a long time to be on a plane! I will most definitely be bringing several books with me, the iPad, iPod and chargers for both. Thankfully, the flight there is over night and we’ve paid a little extra to get a “comfort kit” which includes a pillow, blanket, eye mask and various other things (like wine) to help make the trip that much more enjoyable. (Let’s be honest, am I really going to sleep on the way to France? Excitement will likely get the better of me.)

In our planning prior to booking flights, we have several places nailed down that we want to visit for sure. The places have changed a little since we first started talking about going to this beautiful county, but there are several that have remained unchanged. Loire Valley, Bordeaux, Paris. Those are our Big Three that will not be missed.

We’ve gone from thinking we could do Nice, Lyon, Marseille, Normandy, the Big Three, maybe Lorraine. Then we looked at how far things were, the train/drive time and the fact we’d get a day at most in each place. Now we’ve decided that we’d much rather enjoy our time in fewer places and get to know the areas better. Still have the Big Three in the itinerary, but have added Normandy and Carcassonne and Marseille.

Day 23 - Favorite Vacation

It hasn't happened yet. 

Frenchie and I are going to, one day, before kids, go to France for 2 - 3 weeks. Sure there are some amazing vacations I've taken in my life. I absolutely LOVE the Cayman Islands. We've been there twice. Although it's a vacation, we also go to see family and friends.

Cuba was stunning. The history and people were amazing! I think as a Canadian there is a different feel to going to that island. We are treated so well and the people are so friendly. My family and I went over Christmas and had a wonderful trip. I've never seen a larger coconut Christmas tree before.

Mexico: Been twice. It's the place you go when you need a cheap vacation.

Hawaii: Beautiful place! I'm an all-inclusive girl, so although New Years in Maui was awesome, I didn't find it the same type of holiday as I'm used to.

I've been a few more places, but I'm betting on the Honeymoon being one of the best. only 6 more months!!

Day 8: A place you've travelled to

My favorite place I’ve been so far is Grand Cayman. I’ve been twice now.

We have family and friends that live on the island so we only ever have to pay to get there. They live not too far from 7 Mile Beach. A walk two blocks and we’re on the beach enjoying the sun.

Frenchie and I did our PADI certification classroom/pool course here in Canada then went to the Caymans and did all our certification dives. It was stunning and warm. Way better than up here in the murky cold.

Here are some pictures for you to get jealous over. These are from 2008

Turtle Farm - Baby turtle

7 Mile Beach



Rum Point

Shortest Runway Ever!

Stingray City

HELL

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!!!

To all my Canadian readers:



I hope you eat a lot of turkey, fall into a turkey nap and have leftovers for the next week. At least that's what I'm planning this weekend.
We are travelling the 6 hours to my future-in-laws to celebrate Thanksgiving. My future-mother-in-law is an AMAZING cook. I always eat way too much and have way too much wine. It's hard not to!
Enjoy the long weekend!!!

I hope everyone has something to be thankful for this year.
Here is my list:
- new opportunities
- friends and family
- my wonderful fiancé
- the lessons I've learned this year

Vacation Posts - The Wedding

Frenchie and I drove from our home to Kelowna, BC for the wedding of my old college roommate Jess. I was to be a bridesmaid for her. Duties included: keeping her sane and not freaking out, keeping the other bridesmaids on time, and making sure the Groom did not see the Bride. 

The day started with coffee at Good Earth Café. We then went for hair and nails. I now still have beautifully manicured bio-sculpted nails. So fun!

After that we headed for lunch. We headed back to her house to get her dressed and ready to walk down the aisle.  I played photographer and tried to get those really neat detail shots. They didn't turn out great, but what can you expect from a point-and-click camera.

The ceremony and reception was all in one location. A heritage church was fitting for these two. With about 60 people the setting was very intimate.  The reception was an appetizer meal. There was servers wandering around the grass and table areas with platters of food. Jess' husband designed the menu. Very tasty!

Jess' father-in-law had a tradition to share called "Cutting the Champagne". He took a sword and cut the top of the champagne bottle. Very impressive! Something I had never seen before. We saw him come out of the building with a sword and wondered what was going on.

  

We spent the majority of the evening playing croquette.  Once it got too dark, we sat at a table with some people we had just met and chatted. All in all, it was a very fun wedding.

I am so happy I got to stand up for Jess on her day. It was wonderful to be there for her and her new hubby.

Vacation Post - Wineries

Frenchie and I took an extra day in Kelowna after the wedding to do our own version of a wine tour.  We traveled to 6 different wineries, tasted at all of them and purchased a bottle or two from each. It was great to have a day together to have some fun. We came back with 15 bottles of wine and a bottle of champagne. We plan to keep the bottle of champagne for our wedding night.

We started fairly early in the day after meeting the new married couple for coffee again.  After such a long day of tasting, we ended up going to bed around 7:30pm and sleeping through until morning. Tasting is a lot of work!!

Quails' Gate Winery

St. Hubertus Estate Winery Ltd.
They had this cool old truck outside the cellar. Great photo opportunity!

Mission Hill Winery
This winery exudes wealth. It was absolutely beautiful.












Cedar Creek Estate Winery
They had a beautiful rose garden at the pavilion for this winery. There must have been a wedding earlier in the day because there was still rose petals forming an aisle on the grass.

Blogging Haitus for a week or so

As I posted Wednesday, I am heading to a wedding for my college friend. After the wedding in western Canada's wine country, Frenchie and I are headed to my annual family vacation. I am very excited to go and spend some time away from work and with him. We are taking Beta with us and I can't wait to see how she does travelling in the car and camping. Luckily, my sister will have her dog at the campground so the two pups can play together.

Until I return... Keep reading, poling and blogging!

I will try and post some pictures if I get a chance.

Wedding Wednesday

After accumulating a few more guests than anticipated, I am happy to say the list is now done. I was freaking out last week on Frenchie because it's the last thing I wanted done before holidays and the answer was always, "I don't have time to look at it". Well, this weekend, we sat down for a total of 10 minutes and figured out who we could safely remove from the list, who we were adding, and how much it was roughly going to cost for food. (We hadn't factored in children that are free or half-price)

I'm so happy to get this check off the list!

Now I just need to get a hold of the caterer we want to do a tasting with and hopefully sign him. He's the cheapest we've found, and his references are quite impressive.

Hooray for wedding things!

On note for someone's wedding other than my own.

My friend from college is getting married this weekend!! I'm standing up as a bridesmaid for her. I'm very excited to go and be there for her. Her fiancé is a wonderful man who helped orchestrate a surprise trip last September for me to go and visit them. He's wonderful to her, and they deserve each other. Very fitting to one another.

For us it's a destination, so I will hopefully have some pictures to post after the wedding and extended vacation afterwards!

Back to Reality

I'm back from vacation.
It was wonderful! I had such a great time visiting Fi's nephew, brother and sister-in-law.
Recap of the vacation:
The Flights
We arrived late evening and found no luggage at the airport. With such a short gap between flights, we just made it, but our luggage didn't. We got it the next day so it wasn't too bad. No problems on the flight home at all. I was very happy to not be too overly stressed while travelling.

The Weather
The weather was pretty well overcast for the majority of the trip. We got a couple hours sun each day, but then it would cloud over and we'd head inside. We had good sun the last few days we were there.

The Diving
We did manage to get 3 wonderful dives in.
First was a shore dive. We swam from shore, out to a reef and dove around for 45 minutes. Felt great to get back down there. We saw a turtle this dive. So majestic. Also saw a school of Tarpin. They are bright silver and very large fish. Amazing to see them all in the light.
The other two dives were off a boat. First one was down 80 - 100 ft down. We saw two amazing Puffer Fish swim by. They weren't puffed out, but had to have been at least 3 - 4 feet long and 1 foot wide. They have these flat square faces that are so cute. Second one was shallower at around 50 ft. This was a cool dive because the reef created these little road ways through it. You could swim in between the coral and see all the neat things on the sides.
We went snorkelling on our last day. The fish at Cemetery Beach are used to being fed by snorkellers. Even if you don't take food out, they will swim towards you in large numbers. It's a little daunting the first time you go, but amazing once you're used to it. This particular reef has a lot of sea urchins with large spikes. They look very neat coming out from the cracks. We had been to this reef on our last trip down, and found the cute little blue fish with white dots again. They are really tiny, but so beautiful. I could watch those particular ones swim for a long time.

Rum Point
We went out to Rum Point for an afternoon one day. We hung out on the beach chairs reading, drinking pinacoladas, and just waiting for the evening. We went for a night kayak out to what they call Bio Bay. The water in this bay contains these little organisms that when you agitate the water, light up. Everytime we put our paddles in the water it created a bright blue trail.

Family
We went to visit FI's Brother, Sister-inlaw and their beautiful 3.5 month old son. He is quite the little guy. Happy, smiley, and didn't fuss too much other than one bad day. He managed to roll over once on his own. The next time we see them will be this summer. Nephew will be 9.5 months old by then!

The trip was successful. I had a great time, was very relaxed and managed to read a lot.

Surprising Kelowna

This past weekend was a surprise to my friend Jess. Her FI and I planned out the whole weekend.
I would arrive on Thursday and go golfing with him. Then it would be a surprise to walk into their house.
That sort of worked. She kind of figured it out before I got to her house, but that's alright.

Thursday night was dinner out at a fabulous restaurant. Martini's abound made from fruit puree... yummy. I got to see their house for the first time. And just to prove how much of a polejunkie I really am, I sized up the living room for height and swing space without even thinking about it.

Friday was a lounge around day.  The 3 of us headed out to a few wineries and did some tasting. That was a blast. I bought two bottles of wine to bring back with me. Jess had to work for a few hours in the afternoon, so I wandered around downtown Kelowna and did the touristy things.  I got a lot of looks, and was later told that tourist season is actually over, so that's why people were looking at me funny. I even popped into a bridal shop and tried on a few things. SO FUN! I did not find 'the dress', which I'm happy about. That's meant to be found with people around.

Saturday was spa day. I had booked Jess and I in for 4 hours at The Delta Grand Spa. We started with a steam room, then moved onto an hour massage. Next was a pedicure (oh pretty toes!), followed by lunch. We spent some time after we ate lunch out on the patio in the bright sunshine.  Last treatment was a facial. I fell asleep in parts of it. Very relaxing. Sicne we ended and still had sometime left on our parking meter, we dipped into the hot tub and melted like butter even more than we already were.
We then proceeded to go to another winery, rent some movies and buy clothing at American Apparel. She has a love for funky clothes and booty shorts for Roller Derby. I have the same love, but for pole. It was a win-win.

Sunday it was time to fly me home. I jumped on my flight and arrived at the airport to a large bouquet of pink daisies. (I love my huney!!)

It was a good weekend. Relaxing and fun.

Tiny room and lots of people

I got home from training today and immediately headed to the hotel gym. I was ready to get there and get out so I could eat dinner and phone home for a chat. Before I go on to rant a little, I should mention that the gym here is about the same size as my hotel room, only instead of the nice furniture, there are 2 treadmills, an eliptical and 2 bikes for cardio machines. There is a rack of dumbbells, and a fitness machine with 4 stations attached to the inner pillar. You get the idea.

That said, when I got there, there were 3 people doing cardio, and one person using the machines. Basically, I should have said to hell with it and gone back after I'd had dinner. The time would have been the same and I probably would have enjoyed the workout more. Can you tell I'm the type of person that doesn't like the crammed gym scene? I like my space.

On top of the busyness, I looked at my set of workouts I was to do and I had another disappointment rolling in. I had a look around at what was available to me for machines and accessories. I did half my workout because there were some things (like an exercise ball) that were not in existence. It was done half-heartedly too. I thought after I was done that I would have been better off not doing it at all by this point. (hindsight's 20/20)

To end the evening on a good note, I did enjoy a steak and roasted potatoes for dinner. I also had the pleasure of good conversation with a woman who was eating alone as well. I then got my phone call home in and felt better to have contact with some loved ones. I do love my alone time just as much as the next person. I've also come to find there can be too much of a good thing.

Hotel Gyms and chocolate cake

I'm sitting here in my hotel room in Houston trying to digest the insane amount of food I ate at dinner. Being alone travelling some how causes me to eat a lot of unnecessary food. (The exact opposite of what happens at home... I usually forget to eat if I'm alone) So I'm here missing my comfortable house and curling up on the couch with my boyfriend and instead, eating food and drinking wine. I've gotten fairly good at travelling and am never away from my hotel room without a book. Whether waiting for taxi's or food at the restaurant, I will always read to keep myself busy. Problem with that is that it's easy to get lost in the book and just continue mindlessly eating and picking away at whatever is in front of me. In the case of tonight's dessert... chocolate lava cake dripping in chocolate sauce. (my stomach says no more!)

On the other side of things, I may be eating a lot, but I'm also at the gym (for a lack of anything else to do as the only motivation). The gym here is small, and doesn't have any dumbbells heavier than 12#, but I can make do. It certainly doesn't have the same capacity as I'm used to, but there are always modifications that can be made to accomodate the tools I have. (wow, spoken like a true fitness geek)

So I started Stage 3 of my workout program today, and nearly died doing the Body Weight Matrix at the end of workout "A". This consists of:

• 24 Squats


• 12 lunges (each leg, alternating)


• 12 jumping lunges (each leg, alternating)


• 24 jump squats.

And you do all of that as fast as you can, trying not to stop. At the end of you, you double the time it took and rest, then repeat it all. My quads were screaming in agony! I must say that I am proud of myself for doing sets, and more so because I cut 1 minute off the time the second time through. (yeah me!) I even went down after supper last night and did my intervals (the dreaded 15 minutes that really aren't as bad as I think they are)

I think a lack of anything else to do (other than shop, which would overload my suitcase in weight for the plane trip home.) has prompted me to dig out my fitbook every night and record the days meals/snacks and drag my butt down to the gym. There are far too many hours in hotel rooms for me to arrive home sane.

Mexico Vacation and some other big news

With all the craziness of the swine flu, I was indeed in Mexico this past week, and am happy to say I am not sick! I got back and my family and friends were very worried. We were in the Mayan Riviera and flew in/out of the Cancun airport. We had no issues while we were down there, or coming back with all the hype the media is putting out about this. Yeah!

On happy notes though, the vacation was awesome! My boyfriend and I hung out at the hotel for a week. 5 straight days of lounging in the sun, and one day at Xel-ha with some other family that was down there at the same time as us. We stayed at the Hotel El Cid http://www.elcid.com/marina_beach_resort/ We had great food, great service, clean resort and the staff was all wonderful. The resort wasn't busy at all, according to us. We never had any problems finding a place by the pool or the beach.

The trip to Xel-ha for the day was great. We got to jump off the Cliff of Courage (which was a lot further than I thought) and snorkel down a river that opened up to a large lagoon. We also swam through some Mayan Caves and got pictures taken from above through a hole in the ground.

All in all the trip was incredible.

The big news: We bought our first home!! The big move is at the end of May. Coming up quickly so the stress of packing and getting things ready to go starts. The amount of paper work and signing of things and meetings with various people is insane! We looked at a total of 10 houses in one day and decided on the last one. We both walked in and felt like it was a home, not just another house. So, we are now in an area of the city that we never thought to look in, in a house that we don't have enough furniture to fill. I'm so very excited to finally stop renting and own something. The thrill of being able to have a backyard and a garage is great. I will try to keep everyone posted on the big move. It's going to come faster than I think

The End... and more beginnings

Stage 1 complete!! (oooo that sounds star trekkie... appropriate since the movie comes out soon)
I have just completed the last of my workouts in Stage 1 of the New Rules of Lifting for Women. I'm ecstatic to be done. I feel so much stronger and have far more energy that I had 8 weeks ago. My broken hand is close to full strength, and my stress levels are slightly lower. I had my trainer at the gym do my measurements for me. The biggest difference was in my body fat %. I am now at 12%. My arms have slightly increased in size and I lost an inch off my waist. Not that there was a lot there to begin with, but now I have a very defined waist.

Last night was movie night, so we used two free admission coupons to go see the new Fast & the Furious. I loved it. I'm very much a car and muscles gal, so this movie was perfect. I went in with expectations of being entertained. Wasn't expecting much of a plot, or really thought provoking lines, so I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

I am now off for a week holiday in Mexico to relax and not think about anything (I've heard this not thinking thing is done...). We've bought our own snorkels/fins/masks to go snorkeling off the beach and then take with us on a scuba dive or two. We may take a trip to one of the ruins, but the idea of going to relax is to sip Pinacoladas and catch some sun rays. I heart umbrella drinks!

With that said, I won't be blogging again until May! Happy Spring!!