"God brings man into deep waters, not to drown him, but to cleanse him and prepare him for a greater usefulness."

Dr. Paul Chappell

Vinyasa it up

Okay, kids. Casey and I went to our second awesome yoga class last night.

We love it.

I'm so on board with it, that I've already added yoga mats for us to the Christmas list. Here are the ones we both like.

Pam (Prosperity):


Casey (Karmic Bliss):


We decided if we're gonna really get into this, then we don't want to get a disease from communal yoga mats. Am I right or am I right?

And then I spent an hour looking up yoga mat bags online. I found an AWESOME one on Etsy. Unfortunately, it was $120. Seriously? For a bag. For a yoga mat bag. Yes, seriously. I love it. But I would never pay that. There were others that were cute, but this one was beautiful. Actually, here it is:





Yeah, how beautiful is this bag?

Then, I found these (below) and thought, this could totally be a mother-daughter project (momma?)! We could make our own. I can finally learn to sew more than a button! This doesn't look that hard. And as a bonus, they would be totally unique. And I could make a manly one for Casey. Hopefully I can learn to sew well enough to make it look as good as the one above. That's the one I reallly love. No? We'll see. Here are the simpler ones that made me think, pssht. Can totally do that.



I like how this bag's strap is an old necktie. LOVE! How creative!



So after I finally stopped looking up yoga mat bags, Katie comments from down the hall at the laundry room, "You would think you guys had been to more than two yoga classes the way you are looking at those bags and mats" Hahaha. She's so funny. And so right. But we've found a new hobby and we need to look super cool, and our muscles thank us for it too.

Oh my good gracious

I really am not a fan of when people put up pictures of their meals, snacks, desserts, and latest creations on FB. I don't know why. I really don't. So I resisted, but then gave in on blogging about the two fabulous items below.

Okay, so there's two desserts that I just love.

The first (thankfully) I cannot have anytime I want. I have to pay to go on a cruise to get it. Specifically a Carnival Cruise. It's called Chocolate Melting Cake. It's glorious.

On our honeymoon, I had one every night. When it's one of the few things you splurge on on the ship, then it's totally cancelled out by taking the stairs EVERYWHERE and the standard daily run. So it's really not an issue. But look at this thing:



Casey found a recipe for said Chocolate Melting Cake. The same recipe Carnival uses. I haven't tried it yet. Merely because I haven't had occasion to make it and what if it doesn't turn out right? Horrors. And partly because I want to save the enjoyment for cruising. My mindset may change when we stop going on annual cruises.

Here's their not-so-secret recipe:

http://www.examiner.com/cruise-ships-in-charlotte/carnival-cruises-warm-chocolate-melting-cake-secret-recipe-revealed

The second is cookie cake. You know the kind the Harris Teeter bakery makes? YUM. It's so soft, but firm enough to not fall apart which is way fun. And not super super sweet. And it can still be decorated like a regular cake. And sometimes, if you catch them at the right time, they are on sale for $3 off. We do this for some birthdays or a graduation or a new baby or something along those lines. With a scoop of fro yo, it's delish. Anyways, someone I went to high school with posted this on FB. Take a look. It looks amazing! But really rich actually. So I'm not sure about it. But take a look anyways. It looks fun to make too! If you decide to try it, please give me a full review.

Here it is (I think my eyes got really big when I saw it):



And see the recipe here:

http://www.sophistimom.com/one-pan-skillet-cookie

Happy baking!!

**I'd like to apologize that I still have not figured out how to do clickable links. Sigh. I need to take a techie class or some shizz.

Happiness

I found this quote, and I love it.

I think everyone should fully embrace it.

"When I was 5 years old, my mother told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked what I wanted to be when I grow up. I said happy. They told me I didn't understand the assignment. I told them they didn't understand life."


On a side note, Casey and I are going to the grocery store tonight. That means we get to buy more honey crisp apples. Excitement!!!
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Yesterday

Shout out to my Katie. Happppppy Birthdayyyyyyyyyyy! It was actually yesterday, but I didn't have a computer all weekend. We were living it up in Pittsburgh. What better day than a Sunday for November 13th to be? Especially for my sweet blessing of a sister and friend. I love her.

Stacie and I filled the bathroom with a sea of balloons for her to walk into when she woke up. I think I doubled my lung capacity. Those were the hardest balloons I've ever had to blow up. And we confetti-ed her oatmeal bowl. Yay. And gave her a "Party Girl" pin to wear.

She's so adorable with her party-pin!! And even with her sad-face cause she's not a fan of Bdays. Ha ha. Here she is:

4 Things I Learned This Week

A couple new things happened this week.

1) Casey and I went to our very first yoga class. Together! On Tuesday. Vinyasa yoga. If you do not know what this is: Vinyasa is a term that covers a broad range of yoga classes. The word Vinyasa means “breath-synchronized movement.” In other words, the teacher will instruct you to move from one pose to the next on an inhale or an exhale. This technique is sometimes also called Vinyasa Flow, or just Flow because of the smooth way that the poses run together and become like a dance. It was so cool and empowering. It'll be our Tuesday night date.

I was impressed by how well we both did considering it was our first class, but I think with staying focused on the movements and utilizing our strength base, it was totes (another abbreviation Katie and I are trying out...for totally...I think it's catching on) awesome. We didn't feel clumsy or out-of-place which kinda surprised me, but we still have lots of practicing to do. We can catch on and keep up, but we are not nearly noodly enough to do all the fancy poses. And we have to concentrate alot because we don't know the poses yet. And two thumbs up to instructor Anje. She was great. Go to the Siskey Y for her yoga classes. You will not regret it. But don't go to our Tuesday night class because it was pretty full, and we don't want to be booted. Just sayin.

This is what we looked like:



Next on our list is hot yoga, but considering we were sweating in a normal temp class, I'm kind of worried that my hand will slip on the mat during a pose because of the sweat and I'll break something...or that I'll pass out from heat exhausting. Is that overly dramatic? We'll see. I even find myself practicing yoga poses at home now. So fun!

I think Casey should wear yoga pants and a tight tank top and a sweatband to the next class. I feel like that's very yoga. I should wear my chacos. And we should invest in mats and the cool carrying cases. I'm so into this now.

2) A self-discovery. Of awesome honey crisp apples are. (Casey keeps calling them honey nut apples. He cracks me up.) Seriously, I've never had them until this week. They are AMAZE. But so expensive. We picked out 5 apples. FIVE! The cost? Just under $10. I decided we officially need to become Johnny Appleseeds and plant some trees out back. Casey and I both have been eating one everyday. Go apples! For a while, I was nearly sold on substituting my love for apples with bananas because I had not had ANY good ones in too long and was getting frustrated with the poor selection...until this week. However, the price of bananas is still way better. I feel like I could buy a whole bushel for the cost of 5 honey crisp. But I'm telling you, especially if you've never tasted, that they are delicious. And they are on sale at Lowe's foods right now.

And I just found out the apple has its own website. Ballllin.
www.honeycrisp.com



3) I learned that my phone from 1982 will not cut it much longer. It's struggling with memory loss. T9 is failing me and spitting out crazy combinations of letters. And sometimes I push letters and they do not show up on the screen. All systems failing. This worries me because I pride myself on not having a smart phone. But, I feel like that's all that's available these days. And the monthly cost is absurd! Sigh. We'll see. This time next month, I may be singing a different tune. I'm strongly against advanced technology. I guess this is strange considering I'm in the science research field, but still. My thinking is this: the more complicated and intense something is, the more there is to malfunction or the higher the likelihood that some part of it will fail or break. Unfortunately, my simplistic 80's phone (it's really from early 2000, but still) has simply had all it can take. We've had a good run.

This is my phone (I bet you forgot phones like this ever existed):



4) Nooks are awesome. I borrowed my dad's last week. So I learned this last week truthfully, but I'm still including it. I feel so technologically savvy. I know it seems contradictory to my last post. But it's really not. We're talking apples and oranges here. So many books in one handheld device. It's fantastic. There's something about actually holding a book and having some books on the shelf, but for alot of books that people buy and then don't know what to do with--a Nook is great. You don't have to store anything! I know I already mentioned Casey loves his too. But I feel like everyone that reads alot has one now. That or a Kindle anyways, so when I read the Nook in public, I feel like people are thinking "that's a true book-lover right there." Dumb? Perhaps. I just can't help the way it makes me feel. If you are interested, go www.barnesandnoble.com and view the picture here:

Spintastic tunes

This title is a pun. Creative Casey came up with this name for the playlist I created to lead Kate in a little spin class on Saturday. So Stacie coaches high school swimmers. They have practice Saturday morning. The school has spin bikes. So Kate and I will spin during practice Saturday morning. Natch. My task this week was to come up with an awesome playlist and class design. Now, I don't want to brag, but I am a Spin Instructor. The real thing. Certified. I've just never utilized my knowledge because my job keeps me kinda busy. Certified BA Spin Instructor though.

My certification lapses in May, and I've been contemplating paying for CEC's (also known as Star Points in the Spin world) to keep my prestigious instructor status current. I guess tomorrow's class will give me the answer I've been looking for. Do I like teaching or do I just enjoy participating? I've been spinning myself for a long time, and I like that. But teaching, we'll see. Let's take a quick poll here:

Renew: yes or no?

So, we'll see. Maybe I should print a survey and evaluation form to hand out to my participants after class. Stacie said she might have her sprinters join spin class. I told Katie that she better warn them to "prepare to die." I'm just saying I'm kiiind of hard core. No big. This class might be torturous. I have 90 minutes of butt-burning, legs-on-fire torture prepared. Well, I hope anyways. Katie suggested I put out a tip jar for donations. Are we at a bar? I suggested leaving scrap paper for them to write their credit card numbers down on the way out. High school kids don't know any better, right? Is that unethical?

Of course, I could make the class a little user-friendly...I know as an instructor that it's key to make your class versatile, but not this time. Not if it's my workout too, as tomorrow is, then I'm certainly going to make it tough. Balls to the wall. Can I say that when I'm a girl? Anyways, be prepared. Besides I have to show these young-gun swimmers what for.

(That was also a plug for my services if anyone knows anyone who needs a spin instructor.)