Miss Teen South Carolina

Okay, I've let it go for almost a week now. But I feel the need to make sure all of my friends have enjoyed a laugh at the expense of Miss Teen South Carolina. Now, we all make mistakes. A lot of us have stage fright. But this is so funny that you don't relate to her, you laugh at her. If you have not already seen it, please watch the video below.

Once you stop laughing, please continue...

A website has been designed to help out the U.S. American children. Please visit it and donate a map to the cause. :)

A NEW RECORD and 12 Week Challenge

I'd like to be the first to congratulate Joe on complaining about McDonald's in all three of his last three posts. Well done.

By the end of the second week of the challenge, I wasn't quite as sore as I had been. So Monday night I decided to do the extra workout (we had the option to get extra nutritional advice or workouts, I chose workouts) Brad had written for me. I also walked (not too fast, but enough to make my legs sore) for about an hour with Sesalee. Then Tuesday I had my workout. It's now Thursday, and I have my workout this evening, and I'm STILL sore. Pretty much all over.

Oh yeah, and this morning I drove behind the FIZZIX / John Galt car again. No new developments there. They also have an ATM metal decal and a Aggie Band window sticker on their car.

church camp and the talent show

We just had our annual church camp this past weekend, and it was great! I had to tell myself to get out of the room and go hang out with people a couple of times (why is that so hard? I want to be around people!), and I had some good conversations as well as some fun playing games.

There is a song called Taylor the Latte Boy that Kristen Chenoweth performs very well. She's one of my favorite singers. The song is pretty funny, and I've wanted to sing it for other people for over a year, but I kept wimping out. We have a talent show at camp, so it was a good opportunity to give it a shot in front of people who I knew wouldn't think bad of me even if I totally bombed.

I was mildly nervous about it all week, but when they called me up I got a LOT more nervous than I thought I would. I couldn't stop my legs from shaking! I was VERY glad I wore pants instead of a skirt at that point. My voice was also a lot weaker than normal, and I ended up missing some notes (not entirely missing them... I'll go American Idol and call it "pitchy"). The character singing the song is fairly meek, so I think (from the comments afterwards) that the not-so-musically inclined didn't notice, and the musicians were too nice to say anything about it (most of them even found other nice things to say). It was good to see how I'd react when I got nervous. I'm pretty good at public speaking, and hardly get nervous, but for some reason it seems to fly by and I have trouble remembering parts of it afterwards... weird, huh? I'm a million times more nervous about singing (because I know I'm not a great singer), but that didn't happen at all while I was singing. If I hadn't been singing with the same recording I'd practiced with, I would have sworn that it was much slower than before, and I remember every second. It's neat to now know how I react in that situation. (Three words in a row that end in "ow"... that's gotta be a katmosphere record.)

I watched the video Joe took of it, and it was like I remembered. I'm not going to put it on YouTube because people are waaaaaay too mean on there, and they would have legitimate reasons to comment. I'll probably share it with family and any friends who ask about it, but that's all... no 13-year-old girls who are mad that the cheerleader snubbed them in the lunch line and are looking for videos to take it out on.

I will share another video from the talent show, though! Our friends Ross & Staci have a son named Sam who plays the drums... and he's three years old. What is even more mind-blowing to me is that he also played them last year in the show - when he was two! There are two songs... even if you get tired of watching, you should watch the very end where he rocks out.

Birthday!

I did not post this right away, thinking I would remember a couple of birthdays, but it's become obvious that I don't have time to look into it right now, so I'm just going to post this now! My birthday was the 18th.

I had a fun birthday this year! Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate and wished me a happy birthday. Joe really went all out and Saturday was full of lots of happy surprises. Joe's parents and sister also drove up from Houston to surprise me. (At Gattiland, Joe's sister Emily won the jackpot on the stop-the-light-on-the-jackpot game - something like 650 tickets!)

We started out the day driving down to Katy Mills (a huge mall near Houston), and so I was reflecting on past birthdays as an "adult". Here's some of what I remember:

18th birthday: I was on the second day of "Fish Camp" - an introduction to life and traditions at Texas A&M, where I was about to start college. I only knew two other girls from my high school, and they weren't in my camp so I didn't see them much. It was a lot of fun, even if it was with strangers. I had met Joe less than two weeks before.
19th birthday: I spent the first half of the day in Dallas (where I was living / working that summer) with my family, then I drove down to Pasadena (far side of Houston) to visit Joe and his family. Joe and I went out to dinner, and he gave me a promise ring for my birthday.
20th birthday: I was in Thailand on a mission trip. We taught English at a public secondary school and at the church we were working with. Joe, Tom, and Jeff were also on the trip. Since it was about 5 weeks in to the trip, lots of people there knew me, and I received tons of beautiful gifts and flowers. Many of us (about 25) went out to dinner, where I learned it was custom for the birthday girl/boy to buy everyone else dinner! It was a very adventure-filled birthday. Joe and I were engaged.
21st birthday: My first birthday with Joe as my husband! We went to Dallas that weekend and went out to lunch with family friends that I hadn't seen in a while (the McMurray's). Turns out I did not have any alcohol.
22nd & 23rd birthday: This will require a little more research. I can't exactly remember, and need to look at some pictures to be sure. I think both these years we went camping (our vacation) in Texas, and Joe took me shopping for my birthday.
24th birthday: I had been applying for jobs in town and even had a three interviews in the last week. Two of them looked like I had a good chance at getting the job. I was still working part time (my old student worker job). I got asked to return to the interviewer for the job I had liked the most, so I took a break from my job to go upstairs (where the new potential job was), and I was offered the job on my birthday! We had two things to celebrate over dinner that night!
25th birthday: We were at camp! Our church goes away one weekend every year, and my birthday was the first night of this camp. Some friends brought a big cake and surprised me with it. :) Joe gave me a nice pair of earrings that I've been wearing almost every day since.
26th birthday: (This year!) We went to Katy Mills and had fun with family and friends at GattiLand. Joe gave me a book and CDs to learn Chinese!

Yikes. I did not realize until just now that it's been NINE BIRTHDAYS since I've been an adult! I just now remembered a diary that I hardly kept growing up. I was maybe 8ish when I got it for my birthday, and then I'd write in it randomly after that. It seemed that I often remembered to write in it on around my birthday. I should try to get a hold of that!

12 Week Challenge: beginning of week 3

Well, I made it through the first two weeks! I've been sore, but usually it's concentrated in one part of my body, so it's not too bad. My legs have hardly been sore at all, but every single day I work out get so tight I think they'll explode. In the cardio room I just have to keep telling myself, "Don't slow down, you think you're going to die, but you didn't last time - you weren't even sore the next day." (I don't say that aloud, but only because I don't have the breath.) Hopefully this week will get better like they say it does after two weeks... though I know they don't stop pushing you!

I also have some pictorial inspiration to go along with my song, specifically the "swimmin' in jelly" line. I'll share it with you:

12 Week Challenge: Day 2

I made it! My arms actually felt better while I was working out (mostly because they were warm and I could extend them all the way), and I got a better stretch in this time (since I wasn't passing out). I ate lunch of salad and chicken around noon, an apple at 3:30, a piece of whole wheat bread at 4:50, and a banana at 5:00 before the 5:30 workout, so I much better fueled.

(side note: right now it's storming REALLY bad with lots of thunder and lightning!)

My arms hurt a lot last night, but I took some pain medicine and poured on some icy-hot (actually, ours is "all natural" and called sore-no-more). So woo hoo! Just this afternoon I was able to stretch my right arm out straight again, and my left arm doesn't hurt unless I move it out of it's comfort-zone. My legs are doing just fine, mostly because I still have decent muscles in my legs and my heart / lungs give out way before they do when I'm doing cardio-training. I'm working on that, though!

My birthday is tomorrow, and Joe's got surprises planned that should take up the whole day. I'm excited!

Some people where I work are preparing for Hurricane Dean to hit next week, thinking it may hit Galveston. Joe's family lives on that side of Houston and had mandatory evacuations a couple of years ago for Hurricane Rita (it was right after Katrina). It took them between 12 and 14 hours to get out of Houston. I know it's supposed to be better now, but I hope Dean doesn't pose a big enough threat for them to require evacuations.

12 Week Challenge: Day1... plus some irony

Joe and I started the 12 Week Challenge (now 12WC) with BCS Fitness yesterday (Tuesday). It's basically personal trainers working with small groups (I think we have 2 trainers and 8 people) on both cardio and weight training. The other 3 people who were there yesterday (3 were out of town) have all completed at least one 12WC directly before this one. We've got tons of friends (well, more than 10, I'm sure) who have done it and loved it. Our friends who didn't stay on for additional 12 weeks are still working out on their own, too!

We were on a wait list to get into a class, so we just found out on Monday that we could start Tuesday. We met with Brad (the owner / a personal trainer / a guy at our church) during the day Tuesday to fill out the paperwork and talk about our goals. He said specifically that we needed to eat a snack about 30 minutes before our workout and gave us a list of things that made good snacks. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to get any snacks before the training (it started at 5:30, so we drove there from work and changed clothes once we got there) and all I had to snack on at work was popcorn. So I ate that during the car ride. (Yes, that is obvious foreshadowing.)

I liked the trainers, and the other people (all women - there may be men who just weren't there yesterday) also doing the 12WC were really, really nice. Everyone was super-encouraging, which was great for me because I REALLY SUCKED. I knew I was in very bad shape (and that was one of my two major goals - to improve cardiovascular-wise), and yesterday proved it to everyone else. I did push myself (and received much pushing from the trainers), so I don't feel bad about the effort I put forth. But at the end I got dizzy and kept shaking and couldn't finish the workout (I missed the leg press and most of the stretching at the end). So, that's why you don't just snack on popcorn when you are about to work out! I think I was trying not to cry for about 40% of the time. Last night, I talked to a friend who did the last challenge and is doing it again (and has gone down 3 sizes in clothes while losing only 3.5 pounds, that's some serious muscle she's got!) and she said that she cries almost every time in the weight room, so that made me feel better.

This is already much longer than I intended, so I'll skip over the details (like how painful it was to reach for the shampoo in the shower). I would like to get to the irony, however... this should reward all of you who are still actually reading this!

As I tried to ignore the screams of my muscles last night, I told Joe I needed to remind myself of all the things I'll be able to do once I start getting in better shape. So I started to sing a (made up) motivational song. The first verse went like this:

Liftin' a mountain,
Swimmin' in jelly,
Runnin' around the block
without gettin' smelly!

Now, Joe did not understand the swimming in jelly line. For the record, I made it up before I thought of smelly to rhyme with it, so that was not my motivation. I like to swim, and if I were really strong I could swim through jelly (at least as much as I could lift a mountain). We continued to make up verses, and I was being silly and kept putting the weakest syllable on the longest note and that sort of thing. I asked Joe why he was laughing so much, and and he said "You have unique syllabic stress," to which I replied, "Mmmm... that makes me hungry for sausage. What is that word, salobic?" (I thought at the time that it sounded like Slovacek, a brand of sausage around here.) Joe said "Sill-LAH-bic." It took me a minute, and then I said, "Oh! SILL-uh-bic stress!" And Joe broke into laughter in which the only intelligible words were "the... irony."

Mike the Headless Chicken

Today I've learned about Mike. Mike the Headless Chicken (actually, a rooster) has a very interesting story, most of which is given away with his name. Basically, in 1945 a farmer cut the head off one of this roosters. The next morning the rooster was still alive and acting normally (it appeared to be trying to peck the ground). It went on to live for 18 more months, at which point it choked on a kernel of corn.

I highly encourage you all to watch the movie trailer for "Chick Flick: The Miracle Mike Story" (I love what the man says close to the end) and listen to the theme song. All this and more can be reached through Mike's web site. If you're ever in Fruita, Colorado, in May you should check out Mike's Festival, where the whole town comes together and participates in activities ranging from the "Run like a Headless Chicken" 5K to the Chick-Olympics including Rubber Chicken football and the Chicken Dance Competition (with Polka Band, they add).

Proud Parent

We saw a parent this last weekend who expressed his pride through this bumper sticker:

If anyone out there knows how this could not be as stupid as it sounds, please enlighten me.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday! Happy Birthday!

This picture is from when my mom was about the same age as I am now. (She no longer has the fake fur lined coat, so don't ask if you can borrow it.)

Camping - I almost forgot!

In the middle of bringing the kayak back to the camp headquarters (during a much-needed rest), I saw a caterpillar being attacked by several ants and flailing about.

I had always wondered how those National Geographic photographers just stood by taking pictures when a baby gazelle was being eaten alive. I think I now understand a little bit of how they must feel. This caterpillar was already losing a battle against ants when I saw it. (The picture is fuzzy - if you don't like it, buy me a fancier digital camera.)

Camping by the Colorado River!

We went camping at Colorado Bend State Park this past weekend! It was really good to get away - just Joe and I.

It rained some on the way there, but as we drove down the last road to the camp (passing many cows by or in the road), we saw a rainbow and that was the end of the hard rain! Here are some pictures:

Rain and Sunshine
Sunshine
Cow
Rainbow

I officially got the smelliest I have ever been. We hiked for 5 miles in the morning (we lost the trail so many times, it was probably longer) through rougher areas than I've tried before, including some stretches where you had to walk across a narrow (about a foot deep) ledge with cacti-filled drop-offs. We had some minor injuries... my most interesting one was getting three needles from a prickly pear cactus in my shin (we were walking through high grass and I didn't see it... walked right into it - brilliant!). Joe had a SPECTACULAR fall very close to the end of the trail (we were only a mile from our camp), and many people were there to see it (when we'd only seen 3 other people all morning). There was one last creek crossing, and it was heavily used since it was the closest to camp. It was therefore significantly more slippery than the rest of the crossings we'd made. Joe took one step into the creek and his foot flew out from under him and he landed right on his back. No one could believe he wasn't hurt, and I think my heart stopped. I asked if he was okay twice, and then the only thing I could say was "You broke your watch." I didn't know what to do, so I retrieved the broken watch (the band was metal links, and they broke apart). We very carefully crossed the rest of the creek, and Joe realized that his wrist was bleeding, but it turns out that a few scrapes were all the damage done.

We got back to camp, cleaned Joe's wounds, and ate some yummy sandwiches with lots of Gatorade. Then we got in a two person kayak and went up and down the Colorado for a while. Here's some pictures of that:As I was rinsing off (the shower was outdoors) I saw two young women trying to figure out which way to go. I went over to help and it turned out had hitchhiked in and had just started what they plan to be a month-long trip. They asked for a ride out the next day (when we were leaving), and I agreed to it. That's a whole story in itself... not a bad experience, though. One of the women basically said she had made a lifestyle choice to live this way (traveling around by hitching rides, camping out). By not-so-careful observation, she had also chose to not shave or wear bras. I'm not saying that's bad, I'm just giving you a more complete picture. It did make me sad when she told us that this trip was different because it had a purpose. When asked what that was, she said "to find a lot of good swimming holes." I honestly expected much better. If that purpose was enough to get her excited, her life must truly be devoid of purpose.

Anyway, back to the camping trip. We hiked (with out newfound companions) back to the location of Joe's Spectacular Fall, and the girls found a place to camp. Joe and I hiked farther to another waterhole that didn't have any other people around. Here are some pictures of that (and the hike to it):Beautiful, yes?

We also had a doe with her twin fawns that were at our campsite every night and morning. The second picture is Sunday morning (very early) when I heard them and decided to stick the camera out of the tent to get a picture.
Okay, that's officially the most pictures I've ever put in a post, but I promise I had many more that are great and I had to leave out!