Book Review, Spin Question, St. Patty's Plans

Happy Tuesday! One step closer to the weekend, right? Right? :) I'm SO READY for another weekend, and so glad that i'll be in town this weekend. We're hosting our second annual St. Patty's Beer Fest so I can't wait to see our friends, drink some beer, and have a great day at the casa playing cornhole, flipcup, Kinect, etc.!

On Saturday I finished up J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Ever heard of it? haha I absolutely LOVE the movies - always have. But I had never read the books and always wanted to. I was at my mom's and saw this on the shelf and said yup, going to read the Harry Potter books this year! Anywho, this is the first novel in the series, and I enjoyed reading about his adventures and having a picture in my head, too. I liked the book because I had forgotten some parts of the movie and it reads very closely. Also, because there were some things in the book that were left out of the film, I found Harry to be much more sarcastic, Malfoy to be much more evil and the Dursley's (his aunt and uncle) to be even meaner! I liked learning about the missing parts, especially in the beginning of Harry's time with the Dursley's, and all of the extra quiddich matches! I found the book to be much more suspenseful than than the movie, too. I give the book a 5/5 - truly nothing to change. I can't wait to read more of the series!

So Monday was a pretty busy day! I worked, walked 3.25 miles during lunch, worked more, and then took the 1-hour body pump class followed by the 1-hour cycle class. I had to leave the body pump class a bit early to make the cycle, so i'll have to do abs on my own, but the cycle class was amazing. Only my second one, but I loved the instructor. Lots of work off the bike and going back and forth from the front to over the back of the seat. Killer. It was like cycle squats. haha I was covered in sweat by the time I left the gym so good workout for me! I got home and cooked up:

• 6 servings of potato & sausage bake
• 4 servings of slowcooker mac & chicken
• 4 servings of skillet lasagna

Then it was shower time and bed time - not a bad Monday and a nice way to get back in the swing of things. I wore my new pants to cycle and they worked GREAT - SO much more comfortable - I need to go buy at least one more pair! Tonight I plan to pay bills and have some fun with my label maker. I'm going to at least do the pantry - I think I need to get a different, smaller tape for the spice jars. Hmmm. Need to add that to my list!

Q: Do you plan to celebrate St. Patty's this weekend?

Q: If you spin, do you understand the 'resistance' on the bikes? Either my bikes are broken or I just don't feel it. Thoughts?

Rainbow Plans, My First Spin Class: Pros & Cons

So fun!! MANY of you are eating rainbows- it seems I'm the one who needs to catch up! (imagine that!) I will though - i'm really working on finding 'rainbow recipes.' I find that my meals are 'one pot' meals and don't include a lot of veggies - but for us, the breakfast ones do well with a side of fruit, and the dinners do well with a side of our favorite veggies (chopped broccoli, sauteed mushrooms, zucchini, etc.) or a small salad. From here on out, i'm going to make sure I note what veggies go best with which dishes and take a picture with them, in addition to the one pot meals that have lots of veggies in them so you don't have to make a side! This made me laugh over at Natalie Dee... Rainbows make everything better. haha

Today i'm home with the baby pups - YAY! Here are some pics I snapped on Sunday - Reuben yawning and Remy dozing!

Love these babies - you can see Molly's hand (my treasured object from Monday's post) in this picture on the left! haha

K - on to yesterday. I worked, took my lunch break to walk 3.5 miles, worked more, and then after work I headed to the gym. The plan was to walk a few more miles then take a 7 p.m. Bodyworks class. However, in the locker room I saw women in bike shorts so I asked - is there a cycle class tonight? She said yeah, right now - come on! So I just sucked it up and stopped talking about going to a spin class and just took one. I felt like an idiot a lot - you know, not knowing how to get my wheels to pop out, how to get my feet in, how to set up my bike, etc. - but everyone was SO sweet and helpful! This made me laugh.... hehe

So far, here are my Pros & Cons to Spin Class (based on my first experience - i'm sure these will change):

Pros: I was sweating bullets within 5 minutes - great workout; my legs are super sore today - in a good way; the class went by FAST - all of the up and down and fast and slow - the hour was gone before I knew it; the music was good - loved how it was dark in there - very cozy; it didn't hurt my foot... very much. May need to get shoes if I decide to do this for reals.

Cons: Hard to get set up (if you're a beginner I'd advise going early unlike me!); still not sure about the resistance thing - again need to get help; I was wearing the wrong shorts - my inner legs HURT - going to get the right shorts!

So really - the cons, to me, are all around not being prepared which, admittedly, I wasn't! I had no intentions of attending the class. So i'm going to get some cycle shorts (which are going to look horrible on me - but it's better then chafing, right?). And, when I attend my next class, i'm going to arrive early so I can ask questions about the set up (and write down the settings that feel right) and the resistance. Next time i'll wear an HRM too!

So after spin class, I took the 1-hour body pump class. Another great class - this one focused on a lot of dead lifts, lunges and shoulders. They cover everything, but you know sometimes one thing sticks out more than another! After both classes I was ready to get home

Q: Have you ever taken a spin class? If so, what do you like best about them and what do you like least? And what do you WEAR? (i'm SUCH a girl)

Paper Plate Lunges, Sweet Baby Ava, A Photo Shoot

Happy Weekend, friends! Thanks for your comments on me and my beseties' photogs! We have a great time together, and while it's a challenge to keep up when we're all 4+ hours apart, I think we do a pretty good job! (If I do say so myself :) ) So yesterday I woke up early and took in another hour long body pump class at 8:30 a.m. OMG. This one was TOTALLY different than the last. Don't get me wrong - the last was great, perhaps we could say 'intermediate.' This one? Advanced all the way- I had to stop SEVERAL times and truly almost felt like I was going to throw up twice. (hence the stopping - can you imagine the embarrassment?? LOL) So basically it was just intense. She gave us paper plates for lunges. I'd never done this. I found a video to help explain:

We did these to the back. We would do one leg a time, then alternate, then fast, then slow, you name it. Over 100 easy. Then we did them to the side. Then we would lay on our benches on our backs and slide both legs out then in while in a pulse position. Then we would get in planks, put our legs out and do X's. It was like nonstop! Every once in a while we'd get a "break" to do push ups, dead lifts and shoulder presses, but it was crazy leg-focused and I am already so very sore! Wonderful class! Afterwards I walked 2 miles, then headed home to whip up a few new recipes, pack, shower, etc. Then I was off to Alabama - a boring, 4-hour drive by myself but what are you going to do? I got in and drove straight to the golf course to meet my stepdad and his buddies. I had two beers with them, then headed home, had dinner, then met Lindz at Ruby Tuesday's, then got to Megan's to see her, Clint and the baybay! Here's some pics:

sweet little girl

happy new mommy

fun with little ava - trying to get her to eat!

She wasn't having it!

Lindz, Meags and me

loving on Ava

little monkey feet

sleepy baby

There it is - she'll eat!

Good times for sure! So happy to see them so happy - she is a living doll and I know they're so proud of her!

Q: Do you like holding babies or do you shy away? I think it totally depends on the baby and on the parents. Some i'm like yes, give me the baby now! Others it makes me nervous - like the super small babies!

Q: Ever done paper plate lunges? omg I can barely walk today!