Kickboxed My Booty!

Saturday morning Nicole and I met at LA Fitness for our 1st Kickboxing Class. What a workout!! I have done the Tae Bo Videos a few times, so I figured it would be similar. Boy was I wrong. Apparently there isn’t a full time kickboxing instructor at the gym, she just happened to be able to do it that day. A lot of people that were there said she was by far the best instructor they have had. Figures my first time giving it a shot and I get the hard core instructor. Now, everything would have been great if we could have just stopped there… but we still had our meeting to get our assessment from the personal trainer. So as we waiting for him, Nicole and I sat in the sauna… ahhhh!!! This is where the fun begins. He sat us down and measured our body fat (Yiiippeeee!) He then tells us to jump on the treadmill for a few minuets to warm up before he shows us around the equipment. I had to hold Nicole back from jumping across the table and attacking him! We had already explained that we were exhausted from kickboxing, but he was not willing to go light on us. So I finally convince Nicole to go along with it, and reassure her that I will do all of the work outs while she watches. (she had only eaten a piece of toast for breakfast, so I think her blood sugar was below dangerous levels) ;) Needless to say he continued to kick my butt on the weights. Afterwards we treated ourselves to Sushi!! Well worth the treat.

Sunday, Dan and I woke up and got ready to head over to Aaron and Nicole’s to watch the Seahawks game. The game started at 1:00pm, Around 10:30am we got a phone call from Dion. He was calling to tell us that their friend Jason had tickets that he wasn’t going to be able to use. So we got to go to the game!! Seattle vs. St. Louis. What a great game! The seats were amazing… The weather was beautiful… and we won!! We also met up with Nick and went out to Mexican afterwards.

A little fun with YearbookYourself.com

So Dan and I signed up for an LA Fitness gym membership a couple weeks ago. We also signed up my friend Nicole. Last night was her 1st night working out with us. Her and I did our own thing, while Dan did his. I absolutely love working out with Dan, but he doesn’t do as much cardio as I need to do. So it was nice to have Nicole there too. Tomorrow morning we are waking up bright and early to go to our first kickboxing class. Right after that we are meeting with a personal trainer so he can evaluate us. I can’t wait to find out just how fat I am!! It will be nice to get a good workout routine down. I’m a little nervous for the kickboxing class though, I have never tried to do any kind of aerobics class. I am way too uncoordinated and out of shape. But you never know until you try.

After our workout, Dan and I went to a new Thai restaurant next door to LA Fitness. It was probably the best Thai we have ever had. We walked in to place our order to go. The waitress took our order, brought us water and even gave us a free sample from the cook. The staff was so friendly, we felt bad that we weren’t dinning in. The food was so fresh and full of flavor. Yet another place right by our gym that is way too good and too convenient. Now we will be debating over Sushi and Thai!!

Seahawks vs. 49ers ~ 9/14/08

As many of you know, Dan and I got to go to the first Seahawks home game this season with Chris and Sarah. Sarah’s boss Brent and his wife were in Italy on their honeymoon, so he gave the tickets to Sarah for her birthday. They chose us to go to the game with them. Brent had been telling Sarah over and over to take lots of pictures, so we thought it would be fun to include them in every activity we did. We may have taken it a little overboard; you can see all of the pictures in our Seahawks Picasa Album.

Dan and I woke up around 6:00 Sunday morning. We got ready and met Chris at his house, and then we went and picked Sarah up and arrived at our first tailgating location around 9:00am. Some of Chris’s co-workers were there waiting for us. Around 10:00am we were all starting to get pretty hungry so we went to our 2nd destination to get omelets from the omelet bar. Our friends Mike and Amy were tailgating with some of their friends who had set up a wonderful omelet bar. We ended up spending the rest of the morning there, which was a lot of fun! The chefs of the group had also smoked some pork butt and made pulled pork sandwiches for everyone to take to the game!! What a treat!

We couldn’t have asked for a better day to go to the game. The weather was perfect. Fortunately we were sitting on the shaded side of the field, which also happens to be the Seahawks side! Between 1st and 2nd quarter I met up with my friend Greg, it was great seeing him. The game was a disappointment, but we still had a lot of fun. For the halftime show Alice in Chains performed, we weren’t even expecting that.

Huge thanks to Brent and Kristen, we all had a wonderful time

and hope you had a perfect honeymoon!!

Congratulations!

Blue Island Sushi

After picking Alyssa up Friday night, her and I went and did the grocery shopping for the week then decided to have a movie night. We met Dan at home, fixed some dinner and watched our movies. Bright and early Saturday morning we all woke up, Alyssa made blueberry pancakes and I made bacon. We were hoping to have a nice family day at the park and then go out to lunch before we had to take Alyssa back to her dad's. Unfortunately Dan had to go help his dad with some stuff, so he wasn't able to join us.

The 3 of us did end up checking out a new sushi place in Federal Way. It is called Blue Island Sushi. You walk into the place and all of the employees turn to the door and give you a nice warm welcome (in Japanese). There is a sushi bar that forms a big circle in the middle of the restaurant. There are plates going around the bar on a conveyor belt. After you are seated you can start grabbing any plate that you want. Each plate is color coordinated and that is how they keep track of your tab. The plates range from $1.50 to $3.50. Between the 3 of us we shared 18 plates!! As we were leaving each employee looked at us, thanked us and wished us to come back. Absolutely great customer service and wonderful food!! I'm a little nervous that it's so close and pretty affordable. I have a feeling that we will be visiting that place more often then we should.

Yummm!

Seahawk Scarf #2

This is a picture of the Seahawks scarf that I made for Andi's 60th Birthday gift!! I had such a great time making it... Dan helped come up with the pattern, I did the crocheting. Of course he's bugging me to make his now!

Delaney Senger's 1st Birthday

Dan & Grandpa Paul

Dion Grillin' the Burgers & Hot Dogs

Grandma Jan & Birthday Girl Delaney

She really didn't want much to do with the cake

Big Sister trying to help Delaney

There are a few more pictures posted on our Picasa under the S.O.S Album

September 11th

As everyone in American knows… today marks 7 years since the September 11th attacks. There are no words to explain the tragedy from that day. We all remember exactly what we were doing when it happened. Although it’s something that will never be forgotten, somehow we tend to let it slip out of our minds on a daily basis. But for others, even after 7 years… it is still a struggle to cope from day to day. We feel very grateful to have the love that fills our life. We have an amazing family and amazing friends. We try to express this as often as we can… because today is a reminder that you never know when you won’t get the chance again.
With Love…

On Monday we emailed jokes.
On Tuesday we did not.

On Monday we thought that we were secure.
On Tuesday we learned better.

On Monday we were talking about heroes as being athletes.
On Tuesday we relearned who our heroes are.

On Monday we were irritated that our rebate checks had not arrived.
On Tuesday we gave money away to people we had never met.

On Monday there were people fighting against praying in schools.
On Tuesday you would have been hard pressed to find a school where someone was not praying.

On Monday people argued with their kids about picking up their room.
On Tuesday the same people could not get home fast enough to hug their kids.

On Monday people were upset that they had to wait 6 minutes in a fast food drive through line.
On Tuesday people didn't care about waiting up to 6 hours to give blood for the dying.

On Monday we waved our flags signifying our cultural diversity.
On Tuesday we waved only the American flag.

On Monday there were people trying to separate each other by race, sex, color and creed.
On Tuesday they were all holding hands.

On Monday we were men or women, black or white, old or young, rich or poor, gay or straight, Christian or non-Christian.
On Tuesday we were Americans.

On Monday politicians argued about budget surpluses.
On Tuesday grief stricken they sang 'God Bless America'.

On Monday the President was going to Florida to read to children.
On Tuesday he returned to Washington to protect our children.

On Monday we had families.
On Tuesday we had orphans.

On Monday people went to work as usual,
On Tuesday they died.

On Monday people were fighting the 10 commandments on government property.
On Tuesday the same people all said 'God help us all' while thinking 'Thou shall not kill'.

It is sadly ironic how it takes horrific events to place things into perspective, but it has. The lessons learned this week, the things we have taken for granted, the things that have been forgotten or overlooked, hopefully will never be forgotten again.

Author Unknown

Dan and I met with LA Fitness last night and had our first workout there. It is such a nice gym. It was built within the last couple of years, so everything is brand new. It’s really big and has so much equipment. Even though we had a small gym at our old apartments, we didn’t use it as much as we should have. It feels good to be back in the gym. We love spending that time together and working out. And now that fall is coming around, the days get shorter so we’ll have more time to focus on our fitness.

We were quiet busy last weekend. Friday night Dan went to a show in Seattle with some good friends while I went and met up with a few of my girlfriends. We woke up Saturday morning, made a great breakfast and then went to Dion and Candy’s for Delaney’s 1st Birthday Party. While everyone was setting up Riley and I played dress-up. She even did my nails. She is so much fun to hang out with, what a creative imagination. I can’t believe that Delaney is one already. She looked so beautiful, but she wanted nothing to do with her cake. Of course, we were all hoping for her to dig in and make a mess of herself… no such luck. (I will try to get the pictures up as soon as possible). Sunday morning we woke up bright and early to go to our friend Nick’s house to watch the Seattle Seahawks game. Nick provided breakfast and I had made a big batch of Blood Mary Mix the night before!! It turned out great!

Right now we are very anxious for this Sunday’s game against San Francisco. Sarah got 4 tickets from her boss for her birthday; So along with Chris she decided to take me and Dan!! These are the same seats we sat in last year, box seats off the 50 yard line... Although instead of wearing 6 layers of clothes this year, We'll be in T-Shirts!! Perfect Day for the 1st Home Game of the Season. Thanks Brent!

Today was Alyssa’s first day of 3rd grade. I still can’t believe what a little lady she is becoming. I am excited to see the new things she learns this year. She kept talking like she was not at all happy to go back to school, but it was obvious that she was. She woke up bright and early this morning because she was so excited that she couldn’t even sleep. She said it was the longest night of her life (my little drama queen). I went in to work late today so that I could drop her off at school. Last night we laid her clothes out that she was going to wear today. Like most typical girls, that outfit that seemed so perfect last night, was not working this morning. So after trying on about 5 different outfits she was finally able to make a decision. At one point she came in wearing an outfit from last year. I told her that she can’t wear old clothes, that was the whole point in buying brand new clothes. She said she didn’t care, she said it still looks new and it’s a brand new year. I told her that everyone else was going to be wearing brand new clothes and wonder why she wasn’t. She said that she didn’t care. I love the fact that she really doesn’t care about what people think about her.


So after about 30 minutes of trying to find something to wear, it was time to do her hair. We went and got her hair cut last night. She got cute swoopy bangs and layers in the back. I had plans to curl it really pretty, but she said she wanted either pig-tails or a pony. Of course, when I went to put pig-tails in, she then decided that she wanted a pony!! So indecisive at such a young age ;) I had to keep reminding myself that this is how girls are and it’s only going to get worse.
(she picked out this outfit all on her own. I think it's adorable. It was cold out, so she refused to take her coat off for the picture)
We got to her school a little early. It was so cute to see all of the kids in their brand new outfits, so excited to see each other after THREE LONG MONTHS (is it just me, or did the 3 months just FLY by?). The air was crisp which only means that fall is not far away

Ten Deep Breaths...

The long weekend was nice, but it still felt like we squeezed at least a weeks worth of time into just 3 days.

Friday night the three of us went to Breck & Carrie’s to watch the game and have dinner. Carrie made some delicious salmon; Dan and I brought garlic salad, bread and wine. We had such a great time, as always!!

We got up bright and early Saturday morning. Dropped Alyssa off with my cousin and headed to Puyallup to pick up the U-Haul and finish getting our stuff out of the apartment. Then we met Dion back at the condo, he brought over our new bedroom set (handed down from Burt & Marybeth!!) and helped Dan unload the U-Haul. Then we took the trailer back and picked Alyssa up. We went home and started to unpack. Dan was worried with all of the boxes that we weren’t going to have anywhere to put everything. I assured him that it looks like a lot more then it really is. Before we knew it, most of the boxes were unloaded and we were able to use just about every square inch of the condo. It’s a bit smaller then our old place, but it’s sooo cozy.

Sunday morning my aunt came and picked Alyssa up to spend the night. Dan and I had to run back to the apartment in Puyallup to do the final touches (take stuff to goodwill, garbage, storage and do the move out clean). It feels so good to be completely done with that place. We then went out to Chris & Sarah’s for dinner and movie night. Dan and I beat Chris & Zacky at a game of badminton (I’m tellin’ you… we make an awesome team). The movies didn’t get over until late, so we decided to just spend the night.

We got up bright and early yesterday morning, got home and relaxed for a little while. Then we treated ourselves to a date lunch at The Rock. We shared a pizza, had a couple beers and got into a nice conversation… a much needed conversation. I know this sounds cheesy but I love Dan so much!! We can always have such a great time together. We know our relationship might not seem perfect… but nothing is. What matters most is the unconditional love that we have for each other. I’m so happy that I get to spend the rest of my life in the arms of my best friend! (enough cheese, back to the story)… We went and picked Alyssa up and headed home. Alyssa and I had a lot of last minute running around to do to get her ready for her first day of 3rd Grade.

We are settling into our new home very quickly. Everything is pretty much unpacked, now we just need to do some decorating.