Weekend Recap

This weekend was wild and crazy - woo, party. Not really, but I did do a lot of things so I thought a weekend recap might be fun.


First of all, if you read my post friday, you know I wanted some music. Since my brother in law is the bomb, he got me the music from my list.

I've been listening to them all weekend.

Country Strong - one of the best soundtracks I've ever gotten. One issue, Faith Hill completely messes up the Give Into Me song. Boo. Not a fan. Gwyneth Paltrow's Coming Home is amazing. Amazing.

Sara Bareilles - I haven't listened to this one as much simply because I wanted to utilize my christmas music time while I can. So...

She & Him... I'm not a christmas music fan. I get kind of annoyed hearing the same carols over and over. She & Him is a great way to listen to christmas music and still feel like you're listening to regular music. So good.



Got my hair did...
I decided to go back to short instead of growing it out. I was growing it out from the short short cut I had earlier this year. I'm not doing that again. I felt like a boy.

This was it then -

I'm on the right in the jean jacket

This is it now - 

it's a little different but I can't seem to find a good pic right now

The Nutcracker

My friend, Jeanne, has a little girl who the THE LEAD, CLARA, in the Nutcracker. How awesome is that?? So I went to see her. I use to be a dancer, not sure how many of you know... 

a demo of my skillzzzz.....

But seriously, I was blown away by the performance. One, Selah was amazing. She was so convincing and she put so much emotion into the role, even with me sitting way back in the back. She is a very talented little girl! 

Selah with her daddy

Selah as Clara

Two, I saw a girl I went to high school with - she is now a teacher and she is a beautiful dancer!!!

REBECCA LEE - Ballet, Modern

Rebecca Lee is a native of Greenville, where she received her dance training with the Greenville Ballet, the Greenville County Schools' Fine Arts Center, and the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts.  She received her B.F.A. in Dance, Performance, and Choreography from Columbia College and her M.F.A in Dance, Performance, and Choreography from Florida State University.  She has been a company member with Dance Repertory Theatre in Tallahassee, FL, and a guest artist with Wildwood Ballet and the Power Company in Columbia, SC.  She has also danced with Christian von Howard in the Von Howard Project and with the Garage Girls a Go-Go in New York City.  She has taught for FSU Summer Dance Intensive, FSU non-major dance classes, Tallahassee Ballet, Pas de Vie Ballet Company, Ballet Spartanburg, and Broadway South.  She has also choreographed for Converse College, Columbia College, Ballet Spartanburg, Tallahassee Ballet and the Fine Arts Center. She currently teaches for the after-school A.R.M.E.S. program at the Greenville County Schools' Fine Arts Center.

*this is from the Greenville Ballet website

Third, the Sugar Plum Fairy was amazing. She is a professional dancer, and I don't know where she's from, but she was awesome. No pics, sorry. 

Christmas Cookie Exchange

To continue on the with Boughners, Jeanne has a christmas cookie party and I made Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies. They were very good. 

Recipe - 

2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour (I used Whole Wheat Pastry Flour instead)

1 teaspoon baking soda 

1 cup of butter

3/4 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

1 1/2 cups of coconut

1 cup chocolate chips

*Preheat oven to 325 and grease pans

*Mix flour and baking soda together and put to the side 

*Cream butter, sugar and vanilla together. Mix until smooth, about 1 minute and a half. 

*Add egg and beat into mixture until blended, about 15 seconds

*Mix in dry ingredients

*Stir in coconut and chocolate chips

*Scoop heaping tablespoon of dough onto cookie sheet and smash to make cookie 2 inches in diameter

I wasn't sure what to expect with these because I felt like they had a LOT of flour. They're supposed to be more like sugar cookies vs chocolate chip cookies, hence the amount of sugar/flour. They don't really melt so you have to shape them into the shape you want before cooking. They ended up being really good. 

Grandma's Singing

Grandma is in the choir at church and every year, James & I go listen to her sing. Last night, they did Mary did you know, which is one of my favorite christmas songs, BUT, the song that stole the show - That Little Baby. It reminded me of the Grand Ole Opry and Tammy Wynette. I don't know why, but I LOVED it. The singer was awesome and I am sad they didn't have her sing more. 

So overall, it was a fun weekend full of LOTS of christmas things. I also had an amazing yoga class saturday and am STILL sore. 

On the agenda this week - 

Tonight - 9 Rounds - it's like boxing kind of - i'll talk about it tomorrow

Tuesday - work and rest

Wednesday - Lunch with the old crossfit gang and a celebration of the winter solstice with some friends in the evening

Thursday - my friend's husband's graduation party. He graduate from college with a degree in engineering - super smart

Friday - YOGA PARTY!!

What are your plans??? 

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I haven't done one of these in a long time!! Thanks Jamie for the post idea!!!

1. I am loving West Side Story!!! Last night, my friend Amy, her daughter and I went to see West Side Story at the Peace Center. It was so fun!!! Olivia (Amy's daughter) is so cute and the show was amazing. I love musicals and this is a great one. 

Olivia & I

Olivia & Amy

the stage!!! 

my attempt at artistic photography

2. Casual workplace attire. I am a recruiter and everything we do is over the phone. That means, we don't have a strict dress code. I like to look cute, but be comfy doing it. And after getting home at 10:30, today was  a shorts/t-shirt day. 

I think I'm also going to start putting more fashion stuff on here, and my daily outfits, kind of like Peanut Butter Fingers and Ali on the Run - i'm not promising I'll be as cute, but I'll try

3. I recently found this on Stumble Upon and was super excited. As I've mentioned before, my colleague and I do abs throughout the day so this will be nice to help us find new exercises. 

Today's Routine:

25 Butterfly + 15 Side Lift. X5.

4. Yoga!!! If you've been reading my blog, you are probably wondering why the name of it is A Southern Yogi when I don't seem to mention yoga. Ever. Well, I am super excited because starting Friday, I begin Yoga Teacher Training with Yoganize. Karen Noonan is so amazing and she is so intuitive so I was excited when she accepted my application!!! I will have so much more to talk about once it starts!!!

Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday!!

Kitty Kitty

So, yesterday I was inspired by my friend, Jane. I also love seeing posts like this because I just absolutely love animals. By the way, because of Tina, I want a pug and have already started talking about it with my husband. He's not on board yet, but when he is, that's what I want!!

Anywho, as you can see in Jane's post, she had lots of pics of her adorable puppy Lola.

stolen straight from her blog

Just knowing her story and how they got Lola, I totally feel like God put Lola in their lives. They decided to foster a puppy from the Human Society and immediately got a little black puppy who was a runt. They fell in love and voila... you get this little puppy!

stolen from her facebook page

So sweet!!

Anyways, so I want a dog, but don't have one. Part of the reason is I work like, 10 hours a day and I'm up early to workout and usually have a bunch of crap planned at night so I'm never home which isn't fair to a dog... the second reason

My kitty, Leggett. As you can tell, he kind of has an attitude problem, so I'm not sure if he'll like a new puppy. One time, he got mad that we went to San Francisco for 4 days and took a crap on our bed.... twice.

So, anyways, the point of this post is I thought, I'm going to show pics of my kitty. I don't know if people are going to like it as much because cats just don't seem to be as cute and have the "awwww" factor like dogs do. But it's all I got so here he is.

My husband said he's ugly... NO HE'S NOT!

I think he thought I had food

he hunts birds from the inside, we live downtown...he'd get hit

"I wish I was outside"

"Okay lady, we get it with the friggin' camera"

As you'll learn later in the fall, I'm a HUGE clemson fan and I love all sports so my cat, Leggett, is named after our baseball coach, Jack Leggett. I know, it's crazy. I also had the Tiger at my wedding, so I'm weird

Do y'all like cats?

Do you have a dog?

Any weird sports quirks you have? 













What I'm Loving Wednesday

IT'S TIME FOR......

Thank you, Little Daisy May, for doing this again. I have been skipping Yoga Pose Wednesday but will probably bring it back when I'm either, doing yoga more or when I start my teacher training. For now, I'm in full on marathon/triathlon training. So....

THE LIST

1. Whole Foods ready made meals. They are delish... I have a hard time finding balance between working 8-6 daily, following a marathon training program, cooking meals for my friends that are having things go on in their life, being a good wife, keeping my house clean since it's for sale, blah blah blah someone shoot me... so.... Whole Foods has these ready made meals that we thought we'd give a shot this week. THEY ARE DELICIOUS. I mean, de - li - cious. We bought a chicken pot pie, $12.99 for the big one, which we made on sunday. It was so good and we ate it that night, James had it for dinner one night and I had it for lunch one day, so we got 4 meals out of it. THEN, we got a lasagna that we just put in the oven. James had some last night and I brought it to eat this morning. He said it was pretty good, I'll find out later. So yay for an easy, and fairly healthy in that the food is organic and made without the use of artificial blah blahs, although it's still chicken pot pie and lasagna.

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2. The Life Center : My gym membership allows me to go to any YMCA or Life Center facility in Greenville County but I will tell you that I LOVE THE LIFE CENTER. 1) the pool is never too full, 2) they have lots of open pool hours where as the Y always has crap going on, 3) it's open and set up in a way where you can do lots of things and 4) they are putting on a triathlon for people that want to see what it's like, me, and are offering 3 free triathlon clinics. Tonight is the first clinic and this is what is on the agenda:

You Go Girl Training Clinic 1:  Wednesday, June 29^th, 6:00-7:30 pm

Discussion

• Introduction to triathlon
• Virtual triathlon swim: what to expect
• Swim tips: common complications and how to correct them

Practice/Workout

• Swim: practice what was discussed during swim tips
• Swim: practice changing lanes
• Swim/run practice:  (50-100 meter swim + 0.5 mile run)

What to bring:

Swimsuit or triathlon suit, goggles, swim cap, running shoes, socks,  shorts/t-shirt IF you plan to throw them on before running—we won’t be changing between!

How awesome is this? It was kind of expensive, but the clinics make it worth it because I've never done it and any information helps!

3. Holly Di Giovine

She is getting ready to go to Iraq so we won't get to see her for a while but in the time that she's been patiently waiting for her assignment, she has helped me a lot with running knowledge, swimming knowledge, biking knowledge, confidence/training support, etc etc etc. I really appreciate everything she's done and I'm going to miss her while she is over their fighting for our country!

4. Pearl, Annabelle Reese, Emily, and Kate - new babies born in the last month

Baby Pearl

Baby Annabelle Reese

Baby Emily

Baby Kate

Thursday Funday

This week's training is going better than last week, in that, I have actually worked out every day this week and have 2 of my 3 runs down... BAM

Monday: I slept in and missed the group run so ran on the treadmill... already talked about this

Tuesday: Holly Di Giovine's badass boot camp - i don't know what we did... lots of stuff that made me sweat and made me sore

Wednesday: Morning intervals. This week, the training plan called for 5-6 sets of 2 minute intervals. I averaged an 8 minute mile pace per interval - Covered about 3.5 miles total

Tonight, I'm going to do a tabata workout
tomorrow: swim & maybe bike
saturday: long run - 50-65 minutes total, record my distance, pace
sunday: the day of rest

After this, I will officially be done with week 2 of marathon training - I love a training program...

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So, as you all know, I am a part of a running group called Go Run. I love all of the people that I've met in the this group and it's so fun being a part of it. One of Go Run's success stories is Justin and Marta Callies. Justin started in the program and quickly gained speed. He just completed a 5k in 25 minutes (I can't remember the exact time)... So proud of him!!! Marta is heading up our Go Walk program and so far, it seems pretty successful. I wanted to interview them so you can get to know them a little better. And their doggy, Lucy.

1) How did y'all meet?

JC: I had a job at Hobby Lobby during my undergraduate career at Iowa State University.  While transferred to a different store for the summer I met a weird lady from the framing department who just wouldn't leave me alone!  I couldn't believe how persistent (annoying) this girl was.  At one point she even had the gall to put her number in my cell phone without me knowing!  One thing lead to another and I eventually caved and started hanging out with Marta and eventually she wore down my mean facade (over the course of about a year).  We started dating... and then living together... and before I knew it I decided that this woman was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with!  The rest is history.

MC: We met while both working at Hobby Lobby. I was a framer in the Frame shop and Justin was a cashier/stock boy. There was another guy that worked there named Jason... so as you can imagine... it was very confusing and I probably called him Jason for the first couple of months that I knew him. But regardless of what I called him, I had a big crush on him! A couple of months after knowing him, I broke up with my boyfriend. Justin ("Jason") was a very interesting person. Unfortunately, for me... Justin didn't really care about giving me the time of day... We shared a locker in the break room, it was the end of Christmas break and we were both going back to school. So I decided that now was my chance... so I waited until I was on break and I put my phone number in his phone... A couple of days later, we were both on break together and he decides it'll be most embarrassing to call me while sitting there staring at me...

2) What brought you to Greenville, SC??

JC: I wanted to go into the automotive/motorsports industry after college but there was not much opportunity in that field in the middle of Iowa.  I applied to a couple of graduate programs and a few months later I visited a small, relatively unknown program through Clemson University based out of Greenville, SC.  After touring the facility and a trip to Falls Park I knew that Greenville was the place for me and I began school the following Fall.

MC: Justin had already been attending school at ICAR for his Masters/PhD for a full year before we got married. That whole year, I was still at Iowa State and working frantically on finding a job in the Greenville area. By the time I graduated, I still hadn't found anything very concrete, but I planned on "beating the streets" after I moved. I graduated on May 8th, we got married on May 16th, moved to Greenville on May 18th, and started my job on June 7th.

3) Marta, what did you study and what do you do?

MC: I graduated from Iowa State with a BFA in Interior Design. I am lucky to be working as an Interior Designer at MCA Architecture in Greenville.

4) Tell me about your dog, Lucy. (pics would be great)

MC: After getting settled in our apartment and sort of getting used to living with each other again, we decided it would be a good time to start looking for a dog. I have had dogs my whole life and it was very hard to then not have one around while in school. We knew we wanted to go through a rescue and were looking specifically at Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers. It is a rare breed of retriever that has red hair, a smaller body than that of a Golden and a very energetic personality. We found a 6-month old male at a rescue in Wilmington, NC named Captain. He had been returned after a couple of weeks with a family because he didn't like being left alone and didn't like the husband! After learning more about him, we decided he wasn't the right dog for us. Another dog at that rescue though seemed like a good fit. "Suzy" was a 2 year old Golden Retriever-Redbone Coonhound Mix with Heartworm. We learned later that she has had a litter of puppies when she was about a year old and had spent some time as a stray before being picked up by the rescue. To get a dog from most rescues, you have to go through a screening process, to make sure the dog will be left in good hands. We filled out an application, they checked three references, we had to have a home visit, and somehow we passed! We fell in love with her and after all of her heartworm treatments were done we were able to pick her up from her foster parents. We had never met her before bringing her home, so we were kind of worried that she'd have some problems that we couldn't deal with or something like that. But luckily, we ended up with the best behaved, most content, most loving dog you could find. We renamed her Lucy because of her red hair, after Lucille Ball. She fit into our life almost immediately, and minus her fear of phones, thunderstorms, and talking greeting cards, she doesn't have too many issues!

5) How did you get involved with Go Run (formerly known as iRun)?

JC: After Marta moved to SC and started her job a coworker told her about Holly DiGiovine's iRun program.  I emailed Holly the next day as I was about sick and tired of doing long runs alone on a treadmill.  After the first Wednesday AM workout I was hooked and I have never looked back.

MC: We got involved with Go Run/iRun because a woman in my office had wanted to start running with her husband and found the iRun website with the training schedule. They trained on their own, but she told me about the group and we started going regularly.

6) Why did you want to start running?

JC: I was involved with the ROTC program at ISU for a few years and got a taste of running as  away to improve my general fitness.  After moving halfway across the country I no longer had a large group of people to run with so I started running on a treadmill.  It was partially to improve fitness and partially to lose a few pounds for my upcoming wedding.  I was following a running program I had found online and before long I was running 7 or 8 miles on a treadmill (YUCK!!!).

MC: Justin has always enjoyed running, but maybe hasn't always had the support that he needed to make it consistent. I haven't ever really enjoyed running, but being new in town I joined the group to meet new people and to try to support Justin with his hobby.

7) What have you liked about it?

JC: Getting up at 5AM to go run for three miles sounds like torture but I have found that it is actually an AWESOME way to start my day.  I get to run with a group of people I enjoy and get my workout knocked out first thing in the morning.  It has also, as an added bonus, helped me maintain a more healthy weight as well as little things like climb a flight of stairs without getting winded.

MC: I like the energy that the group creates. It has never mattered how "fit" you are or fast you can run, it's about getting out there and trying your best. It's about meeting your own goals, not the goals of someone else.

8) Marta, tell us about the Go Walk program:

MC: I wanted to start the Go Walk program in conjunction with the Go Run program for all of the people that either don't like running, can't run (due to injury, etc), those who are still intimidated by running or people who just want to walk with a group of people. As I mentioned, I've never really enjoyed running, I'll run if someone is chasing me, but other than that, I'm perfectly content just taking in the scenery.

9) Any special races coming up?

JC: Yep, I am currently beginning my training for my first half marathon!  Under 20 weeks to go!

MC: I think that the Spinx is the next big race that we're going to attempt. Justin will be running his first half marathon during the Spinx! So I'm looking forward to cheering him on for that!!!

Guest Blog - In the Pink and Green

WELCOME TO MY NEW BLOG NAME AND BLOG DESIGN. If you're wondering what happened to Earth, Wind and Fire - it's still here, just under a new name. I felt like it was time and I think this is more along the lines of what I'm looking for. I hope you likey!!


Today is special because we have a guest blogger!!! My friend Jane from In the Pink and Green is going to write about something special. I met Jane in late 2010 when she came to work with me at System 1. Jane is from Michigan and we instantly bonded over food, exercise and our love for the earth. We traded recipes and she introduced to me sites like Passionate Homemaking and books like

Super Natural Cooking

This book is cool because it helps you understand how to replace all your old, processed ingredients with organic products. It's also got some neat recipes.

Anyway, Jane is moving to Colorado and I. AM. DEVASTATED. So, in honor of her relocation, she is going to be talking about summer foods.

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Hi everyone! I'm excited to be doing my first guest blog post for A Southern Yogi to start off the week. Wendi and I are co-workers, but our many common interests (such as blogging and eating!) are what helped us form a friendship. Since a common topic in both of our blogs is healthy cooking, I wanted to share a few of my favorite summer tips/recipes that are perfect for times when the temperature soars. (aka this week in Greenville, it's supposed to be 100 degrees tomorrow!)

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-Use your slow cooker: People seem to tend to use their slow cookers primarily in the winter months for chilis and stews, but this is one of the most versatile and useful kitchen appliances that can actually really come in handy in the summer! It's perfect for those times that you don't want to heat up the house by turning on the oven or stand there slaving over a hot stove, and it's nice to come home from work to a meal that's all ready so you can go out for a swim or just be lazy :) One of my absolute favorite crock pot recipes is Vegetarian Black Bean Enchiladas; they're super easy and something everyone in your family will love. They're made by rolling veggies and black beans inside tortillas (I like to use whole wheat for even more fiber) and then covering them with salsa and a little cheese. They can easily be made non-vegetarian by adding some cooked chicken or ground beef, but I encourage you to try them the way they are first because they're suprisingly hearty and filling! (My husband, who normally doesn't like vegetarian dishes, loves these without meat!) This recipe is courtesy of one of my favorite food blogs, the kitchn, and you can find the full recipe here.

(Image Source)

-Eat more fish: When it's hot out, the last thing I feel like is eating a super heavy dinner, so incorporating more fish in your diet is perfect for this time of year because it's light, yet filling and nutritious. I also love that it typically cooks very quickly, meaning less time stuck in the kitchen and more time to enjoy the summer! My dad is a big fisherman, so I've been fortunate to be able to eat fresh fish a lot of my life, however, now that I no longer live near my parents that means I have buy fish. I like Whole Foods because they typically have a great selection of fresh fish that is caught/farmed using sustainable practices. I got this wonderful fish recipe from my dad via Allrecipes, and it's a quick, delicious way to prepare fish for a summer dinner that has a little bit of a Mediterranean flavor.

One of my many bean salads from last summer :)

-Learn to love salads: One of the great things about living in the South is the abundance of fresh local produce available during the summer months, which can easily be transformed into a delicious salad, a perfect summer lunch or dinner. However, I tend to get sick of eating green salads too much, so when I want a salad with a little more substance my go to dish is my summer bean salad. I like to make it in the early part of the week, that way we can have it as a main dish for dinner one night (since it's so full of protein and fiber, it's actually very filling!), then we have leftovers for lunches/side dishes the rest of the week. I made a few swaps from a traditional bean salad recipe to make it a little healthier; here's the recipe I came up with:

Summer Bean Salad

Ingredients

• 6 oz flax rice pasta (I used spirals from Eden Organic, they have tons of healthy pastas, many of which would be perfect in this salad)
• 1 can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can of pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can of green beans, drained and rinsed (you could also use fresh green beans instead of canned)
• 1 can of black pitted olives
• 1 chopped red pepper
• 1 chopped red onion
• 1 tbs of fresh rosemary, roughly chopped
• 1/3 cup good olive oil
• 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 tbs sugar
• 2 tsp oregano
• 1 tbs chopped garlic
• 4 oz shredded parmigiano reggiano

Directions

What I love about this salad is that it's super easy! Start off by adding your pasta to boiling water and cook for 10 minutes. You'd rather the pasta be a little bit more on the al dente side then over cooked, otherwise it's going to get mushy in the fridge. Just a little note about why I chose to use flax pasta--since we weren't having meat in this meal, I wanted to make sure to pick a nutritionally sound pasta that would give the salad some extra protein. The flax rice pasta is both a good source of protein and fiber, as well as providing a good serving of essential fatty acids which are important since I'm trying to make our diet more heart healthy. I also like the fact that the pasta is a little bit darker because it gives some nice color to the salad. You could use any kind of small pasta shape in this salad, as well as trying other things like quinoa or kamut pasta.

Once the pasta is done, drain and let cool. Once pasta is cool, combine it in a large bowl with the next nine ingredients. What's great about a salad like this is that you can just use whatever you like (or have on hand at the time!), so feel free to experiment with different types of veggies and beans. I personally really like using the red pepper and the red onion because they add great color and flavor to the salad, and then I threw the olives in there because my husband loves them.

Next, wisk together the olive oil, vinegar, sugar, oregano, and garlic. Again, feel free to experiment with the dressing by substituting different oils, vinegars, and herbs. Pour over the salad, along with 2 oz of shredded parmigiano reggiano cheese, and combine until everything in the salad is well-coated. Top salad with the remaining cheese, and refrigerate. The more time that you refrigerate the salad, the more time the flavors are going to have to combine and it's only going to get better, so it's definitely something you could make a day ahead of time if you were having company.

One other note is that I didn't include any salt or pepper in this recipe; my hubby is really trying to watch his sodium intake, whereas I tend to like things super salty. I've been trying to just leave the salt out of recipes, that way we can salt/pepper our meals to taste individually.

This salad is great as the main course or a side dish, and it's packed with fiber and protein from the beans and pasta, as well as looking colorful and summery :)

I hope that y'all enjoy these recipes, and thanks to Wendi for letting me share them with you!

xoxo,

Jane

Yoga Pose Wednesday & a few other things...

OK, let's get the point of the post out of the way first because I've got a few other things to discuss.

Today's pose is..... (the dots are for drum roll).........

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Urdhva Mukha Svanasana

Upward Facing Dog

Upward Facing Dog is the second pose in the Chaturanga series and is usually the pass through before going to downward facing dog. 

Urdhva Mukha: facing upward

Svana: Dog

Asana: pose

It's therapeutic use: sciatica and asthma

Benefits:

Improves posture

Strengthens spine, arms, and wrists

Stretches chest, lungs, shoulders and abdomen

Firms Buttocks

Stimulates abdominal organs

Relieves mild depression, fatigue, sciatica and asthma

Reference: Yoga Journal

The main thing to remember is that one should not "sit" in his/her shoulders which is a typical mistake. Make sure to lift the heart center and push shoulders down. Hips are off of the floor legs are straight and strong, If you have back issues, it's best to have your legs a little wider apart. 

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Now, onto other things:

Today is JENNIFER SETZLER'S 30TH BIRTHDAY!! 

Yeah, Jennifer... welcome to the 30's...

I love Jen because she is:

Funny

Super Smart

Very loving and generous

Loves Clemson like me

Caring

So, Jen, here is your tribute for your birthday:

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(just kidding... inside joke)

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Lastly, if you do not follow this blog, you should, because she features doggies and I LOVE  them!!

Here Comes the Bride - in hiking shoes

Today was a special day because my dear friends, Jeanne and Brian, renewed their vows. They've been married for 13 years and we all hiked up to Rainbow Falls, Jones Gap, Marietta, SC. Actually, some of their close friends (including us) hiked up to the falls around 9 am (its an hour hike) and they came after. Jeanne came walking up to the falls and we all yelled "SURPRISE!!!!". She started crying and Brian was so excited that he pulled off the surprise.

The hike was a total of 2.1 miles, i think it has an elevation change of 1100 ft. It was a difficulty 7!! Which for me was great, just to get in a different kind of workout but also because my 2 stepdaughters, Neely & Jesse, did it too. They did great. They never complained at all!! It took us about an hour and 10 minutes to get to the top.

Here are some pics from the day:

This was at the bottom (James, Jesse & Neely)

so pretty!

Me, Neely & Jesse

We're getting close to the top.. no this isn't it

We still have a ways to go...

and we're here!!

part of the falls from the top

the ceremony

Only time you'll see Brian being nice (j/k :) )

yucky!

It was a great day and I was happy to see my friends so in love, even after 13 years!! 

p.s. I was 17 when they got married!

Do you like to hike?

What are some cool mountains/waterfalls in your area?