Straight From the Horse's Mouth

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Honeymoon Excitement

May20

Seriously, we are so close to getting married and going on our honeymoon! I’m soooo excited! We leave our house to start the festivities next Friday! That’s a week from tomorrow! This fact really blows my mind. I feel like I’ve been planning this wedding for years, but in fact, it has been less than one year. Still, I’m ready to say good-bye to planning the wedding and hello to married life which I can’t imagine prior to having kids could be much different than our life right now. But still, I’m ready! And I’m really ready to go on our honeymoon – a road trip to NYC and back to Austin. We have a lot of cool things planned, and thanks to Honeyfund, we’ve been able to create a fantastic and hopefully very memorable honeymoon.

This summer promises to be one of the best yet. First, we are going to Dallas to watch the CrossFit Regionals where many of our friends will be competing. I can’t wait to see everyone kick-ass! Best of all, I get to marry my best friend! And after that, I get to go on what promises to be the most fantastic trip of my life. And it just goes up from there. After spending about a month on our honeymoon, yes a month!, we are driving straight into Dallas because I’m getting certified in Level 1 CrossFit. I can’t tell you how awesome this is and how excited I am to attend this event. I really hope that I can start helping out with classes and maybe even have my own someday. But I really want to coach CrossFit Kids, but that’s a whole other certification. I just purchased tickets to see Christina Aguilera in concert in Dallas in August. She is truly one of my favorite artists – my other favorite is the Goo Goo Dolls. I’ve seen her once before in concert, and it was AMAZING! I’m beyond giddy to go to this concert. Bryan has even agreed to go along! He’s the best! Hopefully, I can end the summer by making it to the Neshoba County Fair, but thanks to all we have and will spend this summer, I’m not sure this will happen. Bryan most likely won’t be able to go because he’s taking so much time off for the wedding/honeymoon. But if there’s anyway humanly possible to be there – I’ll be there! And the cherry on top of the summer is that both Christina Aguilera and the Goo Goo Dolls are releasing new albums. Wow! Heaven!

We have so much to do between now and next Friday to prepare for this trip! Seriously, so much! The whole house needs to be deep cleaned and there’s even some outside chores to finish up. Some things are packed, but we haven’t even scratched the surface of packing and loading down the SUV. I’m still wrapping up decorations for the wedding. I took on a lot of DIY projects to decorate and save money for the wedding. I still have luminaries to make, and I have to finish decorating this cardboard G’s that I purchased. It’s time consuming, but I think that this will all make the wedding look amazing! And the preparations don’t stop once we leave. No, we still have so much to do when we get there. I have to meet with the people catering our reception and finalize all the details. We also have to decorate and set up the ceremony and reception sites.

In other news:

I created a website to showcase my photography. I’ve been trying to do more of it lately because I have really come to miss having my creative outlets. I’ve also set up a crafting section in our bedroom which has helped with this too. Here is my site:

http://www.familyofgoldsteins.com/vphotoblog/VictoriasPics/Welcome.html

Check it out, and let me know what you think about it, if you have any favorites or suggestions, or even better, if you’d like to set up a photo session. I come really cheap! I just do it for fun. I don’t have a lot of fancy equipment, but I get by.

Pictures:

I want to share some recent pictures with you because I haven’t been very good about doing that here lately.

A couple of weekends ago, Bryan and I took my little brother from Big Brothers Big Sisters to a renaissance fair. Here are the pictures from that outing:

Renaissance Fair Album

Videos:

I also want to share some recent videos.

Planning A Wedding – Part 3

May4

OMG! It’s been 2 months since I’ve written a blog. Get over it! I have. 🙂 So, what have I been doing with myself in that 2 months? Well, I still haven’t found another job, but I also haven’t really been looking. I did go on one interview, but I didn’t land it. I have decided not to look for one due to the fact that I will need over a month off for our honeymoon, and why would anyone want a new hire who needed immediate time off? I spend my days being pretty lazy and hating myself for it. I have done a lot of wedding stuff and some Perfectly Paleo stuff too. We have a lot of things we’d like to do with Perfectly Paleo, but there’s that honeymoon trip again. Whatever! I’ve been looking forward to this trip…well, my whole life but especially these past 9 months. And now it’s almost here and NOTHING is going to stand in the way of me enjoying it. We deserve this! I have thought of so many things that I want to write in this blog, but the more time you let pass without doing it, the harder it is to actually do it. I’ll try…like so many times before to keep it up. I really do enjoy blogging, but I find that it’s extremely hard for me if I can’t have complete silence and an empty house which rarely happens. I have a lot to catch you up on, but I’ll stick with one topic per post. This post is all about catching you up to speed on the grand adventure of the Goldstein Wedding.

*We finally finished the DVD invitations! Wow…what a relief when they were all done. We got them printed and mailed out. Now we are playing hunt down the RSVPs game. It’s not fun. Can you please just mail them back in? I included a stamped envelope and everything! I guess I should have expected this, but I didn’t. 🙁

*We also finished the fan programs and had those printed. Then I assembled them a little every day until they were finished. I feel they still lack some sort of embellishment, but nothing I try to add looks good. Everything looks gaudy. Perhaps simple is the best answer.

*Both of my bridemaids are getting their dresses altered with plenty of time to spare. The groomsmen should be getting their tuxes this week. We had to switch one of the groomsmen, but it really wasn’t a big deal. We’ll have to get the new groomsmen’s suit for him since there is no Tuxedo Junction near him. It will be up the best man to return it since we’ll be on our way to NYC!

*We have an appointment scheduled with The Cole House who is handling our reception and catering. I can’t wait to finally sit down and hash out all of the details. We have been emailing with them, but it’s not the same as face-to-face time.

*I have been making tin can luminaries here and there. I’ve almost finished them all. We’ll have to figure out what kind of light to put in them, but I think they will make cute decorations. A neighbor of ours gave us some white, plastic luminaries with the battery operated lights. I have to wash them out, but otherwise they are perfect and ready to go. I’ll probably line a walkway with them. So much will have to be figured out just days prior to the actual wedding.

*I got my wedding dress all altered, and it’s back in the closet ready to go!

*The registry is up and running though no one has used it yet. I’m starting to wonder if that was such a good idea. Here is a link if you’re interested:

http://www.honeyfund.com/wedding/bryanandvictoria

*I finished decorating the flower girl basket, and it came out super cute! I haven’t decorated the program basket yet, and I’m not sure I will. If I do it’ll be something simple like a bow on the handles.

*I ordered the flowers for the wedding and paid half of cost. I’ll pay the rest the week before the wedding. I think they’re going to look super nice.

*I think we’ve decided to just get trays from Whole Foods for the Austin reception. It won’t be paleo, but at least I know the meat won’t be from some nasty chicken house. Gross!

*We bought our weddng bands! We went with some cheaper options, but they’re both made out of really strong metal so they should last us a lifetime! They don’t match, but I think they are both perfect. I got a 2 mm stainless steel band which I’ll be wearing on my left thumb since my engagement band is too big to wear with a wedding band. Bryan got a tungsten band. It’s dark and looks great on him. I can’t wait till he’s wearing it for life!

*We’ve discussed a route back from the honeymoon, and I think we’ve decided one. However, we still need to hash out the details.

*We took Bryan’s suit to be altered, and he had outgrown it! CrossFit works! We purchased it in January, and when we took it in April his arms were too big! They were super nice and exchanged it for a more expensive one at no extra cost to us. We had to wait till those arrived and went back to try them on. It looked great, and it is currently being altered. I’m ready to see how great his suit is going to look on him. He will be so handsome at the wedding.

*I think the rehearsal dinner is pretty much planned. I’m using it as an opportunity to get our families together for the first time before the day of the wedding. So, there will be more people in attendance than is necessary. We are going to rehearse and then eat outside under the patio. My granny is making chicken spaghetti (it’s sooo delicious!) and some sort of dessert. My other grandmother offered to bring a salad and some rolls. Add some sweet tea and well, I’ll be one happy girl! I hope everyone else will enjoy themselves too!

*We have all of Bryan’s family arranged to stay at The Cole House. They’ve purchased their airline tickets.

*We’ve been working on a lot of documents to keep us on track. We created an itinerary for the week prior and after the wedding. This will ensure that we take care of everything we need to from the time we leave our house until we arrive in NYC. This thing is critical. We’ve also created a travel checklist as well as a reference sheet for the girl that will be house/cat sitting for us while we are away.

*I have purchased and wrapped the flower girl and ring bearer’s presents. I still need to wrap the groomsmen’s shoes.

*I’ve steadily been packing things so that they’ll be ready to just load when the time comes…and it’s coming!

It’s hard to believe that we’ll be leaving for the wedding at the end of this month! I’m so excited. I can’t believe it’s almost here! It’s starting to get really exciting, but before I start celebrating there is tons more left to do….TONS! I should probably go get on that now…later!

Where Do You Go From Here?

March4

…because I’m not sure.

It’s probably not news to the very few that actually read this blog that I was fired yesterday. I used the word fired because I was not let-go or any pretty variation of this word. Nope, I was fired. Because I messed up. And I haven’t denied it once which is why I’m willing to post this on my blog. I’ve always had a lot of respect for people to own up to their mistakes; I’d like to respect myself even if it’s just this one attribute.

Let me tell my story from beginning to end. There is a stomach virus going around the school (yes, another one). It makes 3 since I started working there. The first one was the day before Thanksgiving and because we were so short staffed I had to remain at work from 10 AM when it hit till 4 PM when I ran out of the room in the middle of a conversation with a parent to vomit in the restroom. At this point they finally let me go home. That’s 6 hours – FYI. The next stomach virus I had hit at about 2 AM thankfully. I say thankfully because I didn’t have to vomit at work. However, it was the worst virus I’ve ever contracted, and it ended up sending me to the hospital for abdominal pain and dehydration. It was rough to say the least. And it scared me…seriously. So, when this one hit, I was immediately nervous.

So, it hit at 9 AM. Roughly 15 minutes later one of my bosses came in (there are 2 – they do the same job). She immediately knew something was wrong when she looked at me, and so she asked. I replied that I felt like throwing up, and that I thought I had caught the virus going around. If you wouldn’t have guessed it from my previous paragraph, this school doesn’t react quickly to sending kids home who are sick and often let them come back before they’re better. In a place where everyone is touching, germs spread like wildfire. A crackdown on policy would really help to prevent this. But back to the story at hand. She didn’t seem too concerned about it and left. I only felt worse as time went on, and pretty soon, I was only comfortable when I was sitting down and being very still. My 2 bosses came in every now and then and would ask me how I felt though I seriously don’t think that’s why they popped in. Popping in is something they do all day throughout everyday. I gave them the same story every time – “I feel bad, and I want to throw up.” Around 10 AM our last student came in. I got up and greeted his mother who informed me that he missed school because he’d gotten the stomach virus. I told her I think it just hit me. She left and my assistant seated the boy at the table for snack. Shortly after sitting down, the child got up from his seat and ran across the classroom. My assistant was busy washing another child’s hands so I got up to go get the child. He’s a difficult child to handle though that’s not an excuse. I told him that no one is allowed to walk around with food, and he needed to return to the table. This happens all the time so it’s not a big deal. Except standing up makes me want to vomit. Halfway across the room the child decided to do spaghetti legs (or for those of you with no children – he just made himself go limp in the legs). In other words, the child refused to walk to the table. And I not in a correct state of thinking sort of drug him across the room. Not on his stomach, but just sort of pulling him along because the quicker he got in his chair the quicker I got to sit down. I’m not sure that in this moment I was even thinking. It was wrong. I still don’t deny it. And it shouldn’t have happened. However, I reacted how I did in the moment under the circumstances, and no matter what I do, I can’t take it back or re-do it. It is what it is. I’m human, and I’m not even that great of one to begin with. However, add me plus a virus, and I’m really not much to work with. I stand by this one fact: I shouldn’t have been at work. Back to the story…

The child’s mother had never left the school, and was watching the whole time. No, I didn’t do what I did because I thought she wasn’t watching. I did what I did because I wasn’t thinking….at all. I can’t say that enough. She came in to ask me a question about a cup. When this child sees his mother, he goes insane. Anytime. Even when she’s coming to pick him up. Let me define insane. He starts crying hysterically. He really cries to the point he seems petrified his mom won’t take him with him. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever witnessed in this kind of instance. When she came in, he did this right on cue. I picked the child up and tried to tell him that he needed to stay with us. I didn’t want the situation to be worse than it had to be. I wanted mom to be able to exit without having to peel her child off of her. I tried to distract him by taking him to the sink to wash his hands after snack. He wasn’t having it, and he started to thrash around, kicking and screaming hysterically. Sick or not, I did what I’d do with any child acting like that. I put him on the floor so he couldn’t hurt me or himself. After a few seconds, I picked him back up so we could try it again. I succeeded at washing his hands, and within a minute he was fine.

And so the day went on. I spent it on the floor letting the children climb on me and do whatever they pleased in regards to toys and such. I had to rely on my assistant to do all of the work. I wasn’t capable. It was somewhere in this time that I actually started to cry a little. Vomiting does that to me. I so didn’t want to throw-up there, and I was just miserable. I cried. Lame. I know. Jackson’s mom came to pick him up not long after she had left him there. I knew something was up, and I knew it involved me. At 12 PM I was summoned to the front office. I saw my the sheet indicating that I was being written up as soon as I walked through the office. They told me that the child’s mother had returned to retrieve her child and let them know that she was appalled and disgusted with the way that I had handled her child. As far as the dragging part goes, yeah I don’t blame her. I’d most definitely feel the same way if it were my child. However, the sink thing. That’s not my fault. She should be able to realize when your child is being difficult. I’m not a miracle worker; I’m only a child care giver. I was definitely guilty on the first account.

I was in the office for about 20 minutes. Things got heated. I was sick and emotional. And I spoke my mind. I was upset. I really don’t think that anyone should be made to work under these conditions. There aren’t sick days. What is a person supposed to do? Why does it take so many hours to get to leave when you’re clearly to sick to be there. I was told lots of things:

  • sometimes you have to work through being sick (yeah preaching to the choir here – I’ve had a string of colds and have never called in – only when I was throwing up)
  • if you worked at a public school job you wouldn’t even be able to leave to go to the bathroom (well, I don’t; and I used to be a sub and I never felt like I was forced to work under crazy conditions)
  • they can’t magically make someone appear to relieve me (understood, but teachers still get sick so they should have a plan in effect to do such a thing – it’s not like we get these bugs from home)

I couldn’t stand it. I totally felt like they were bullying me. Yes, I did wrong. If they need to write me up to cover their asses, I would get that. But they never were sympathetic – they were only accusatory. They made me feel like everything was my fault – everything. They made me feel like if I couldn’t be superwoman, then maybe I couldn’t do my job. When they asked what I would do if the situation arose again. I stated that I would just sit in the corner and let my assistant be superwoman. I definitely not risk doing anything that would be deemed inappropriate. I’m wrong, yes, but aren’t I a liability to the school working under those conditions? Wouldn’t it be better if they covered their asses before situations arose rather than after? Or am I crazy? I was wrong, but is in fact all my fault? It definitely could be, but somehow that doesn’t tell the entire story.

We finally wrapped up the discipline section. I signed my sheet writing me up and was informed that any other instances like this and I was done. Fair enough. I returned to my room and about 5 minutes later my relief came. It was 12:30 PM, and I was finally able to go home where I needed to be. Around 3:30 PM my boss called to let me know “unfortunately” they didn’t think I was sorry enough and they didn’t feel comfortable that it wouldn’t happen again. I said what I could without begging, but that was that. For the first time in my life, I was fired. Awesome.

Am I sorry? You better believe it. But how do you show you feel sorry? Different people show it in different ways. I cried throughout the entire office visit, so I was clearly moved by the situation. I can’t go back and do it over. That’s not how life works. All I can do is assure them that indeed would never happen. If you never get a second chance then you never get to show you were sorry. Saying I’m sorry only goes so far. Proving you learned from a mistake goes a hell of a lot further. I feel like I stood up for myself while at the same time accepting the consequences for my actions as honorably as I could. I really don’t think it was the best time to have such a discussion. What more should I have to suffer through? Ok enough complaining. Let me tell you just how sorry I am. I have been guilt stricken since this happened. Beyond just me questioning if I should work with children at all, I have also questioned whether I’d even be a good mother. And why would Bryan still want me to be the mother of his children? I can’t seem to stop my brain from working and thinking. I am so truly sorry to such depths you can’t imagine, and yet I’m still only human.

I loved that job. LOVED! I didn’t dread going to work. But like all jobs, it’s hard to love every part of it. That’s where the administration fits in. I loved my job when the door was shut, and it was just me and my kids. I know I was a great teacher. And they knew it too. They had just named me March’s teacher of the month. I’m probably the only in history to receive this honor and be fired in one week. There’s got to be a little humor in that. 🙂

So, now I’m focusing on getting Perfectly Paleo off of the ground. I’m not even messing around. I really want and need this to succeed. It’s what I was hoping would someday become my full-time job; I just wasn’t expecting it so soon. I’m at the point where I feel like I need to create opportunities. They’re out there, and I want to discover them. I want to make my life better than it ever was before. And I’m hoping that this will continue so that when we have children I will still have time to be a mother and not have to enroll my child in a shitty school like I worked for.

That’s my story. I just didn’t want anyone to feel sorry for me because they thought I got laid-off. If you still feel sorry for me – okay, and if you feel outraged at me – okay too. I’ve said my peace.

I Am CrossFit!

February27

What is CrossFit? Well, I can give you the definition you’ll find on just about any CrossFit site:

constantly varied, high- intensity, functional movement.

And it is that….but it is SO much more! I started out thinking it was just a workout plan to keep me healthy, young, and fit. However, I discovered so much more than just a weekly workout. I discovered a way of life. No really. I LOVE CrossFit. It has a way of sort of taking over you. You come to love it, to look forward (and dread) workouts. The results are undeniable. This shit works! And the results get you hooked, and before you know it, you are living it. You are keeping up with every workout you do, talking about girls like “Fran” and “Cindy” like they are friends/enemies of yours.

I knew I was a CrossFitter when Bryan and I started planning our honeymoon. No CrossFit for a month?!? No way! We immediately started Googling boxes (that’s what we call a CrossFit gym) in NYC to train. And we found one! We are both super excited to get to have the opportunity to train with these guys and at their box. It’s going to be amazing to train in a different box with different people under different coaches. Just doing something different is totally in-line with the CrossFit mentality. In fact it’s so appealing, I was actually looking into maybe getting one class in when we stay overnight in Philadelphia, PA (not to be confused with Philadelphia, MS where we are getting married). Lucky for us, most of these boxes seem to have a drop-in rate or some sort of short term plan we can purchase. And like good CrossFitters, we’ll be taking along t-shirts to trade. So freakin’ excited! And also a little nervous…I’m not exactly a top performer in my own box though I’m getting better and stronger which brings me to my next point.

CrossFit is all about being uncomfortable. It’s not Gold’s Gym. I don’t have time to spend 2 hours on the treadmill or going to aerobics classes. And I definitely don’t have time nor care to work on my biceps/triceps and whatever on different days. CrossFit is great because I work out just 3 hours a week, and I’m more in shape than I’ve ever been in my entire life. And I only plan to get fitter and stronger! That’s where it becomes a way of life as fitness and health should be. You can’t get there and stop; you have to maintain your fitness which requires work. CrossFit is work – hard work! But it’s also fun. CrossFit offers up so much more than just workouts; you also get a family, a community. It’s a support system. There is always someone to cheer you on, coach you through the tough parts. The best thing is that this community is not limited to your box. If you meet someone from another box, you can instantly become friends because you do the same thing. You get it. You’re all CrossFitters!

Back to being uncomfortable. CrossFit is about pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone – get comfortable with being uncomfortable is something we are reminded of daily. Most workouts last no longer than 20 minutes. Be really uncomfortable for this short time and yield amazing results or be pretty comfortable on the treadmill and yield minimal results. It’s not a hard choice for me, but I realize that CrossFit isn’t for everyone. I have seen amazing results across the board. I can run longer, lift heavier stuff, but best of all – I look better naked! And who can’t appreciate that? I can go on and on and on, but I won’t because I’m pretty sure everyone is tired of hearing me talk about CrossFit.

CrossFitters do the impossible.

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock…

February17

That’s the sound of my biological clock ticking away. It gets a little louder with every birthday that I celebrate. It’s a constant reminder that I haven’t achieved the BIG thing in life I have always dreamed about – children! However, I used to worry I might never get to this point in my life because I’d never find a man to marry. But now that I’ve got the man thing down, I am starting to not feel so panicked about this giant step in life. And with the wedding consuming so much of my time and attention, I’ve actually been thinking about drastically less and yet more. Weird? Well, I haven’t been focusing on the “OMG! It might never be my turn” part and started focusing on the “we better get ourselves in order” way of of thinking.

In my free free time (HA!), I’ve been reading books and doing tons of research on all thing babies. I bought a couple of books with a gift card I got from one of my kids at the school where I work. One is for saving money once baby is here called Baby Bargains, and the other is called What to Expect Before You’re Expecting. I love the Baby Bargains. It is full of so much useful information. It’s really going to help us save money. Although as a natural saver, I was already planning on doing it as cheaply as possible (within reason). Babies aren’t cheap, but I don’t see why they have to be any more expensive than necessary. The other book has it’s good information and it’s not so good information. There’s a lot of good advice about insurance and maternity leave that I might not have thought about, but then there is book’s nutritional section which is just laughable. Though I was impressed with some of there should eats, a majority of it just made me laugh at loud. It’s so conventional wisdom.

We plan on trying shortly after the wedding, but I don’t want to attack the process too seriously, at least not at first. I wanna see how it goes at first. If in 6 months, we’re still not pregnant, then perhaps we’ll have to start keeping a closer eye on all the details if you know what I mean. Just knowing that this could be a real possibility in the next year has made me want to start nesting. It seems odd because who knows when or if we’ll get pregnant, but I just can’t help myself. For example, my co-worker and best friend gave me some stuff for our charity garage sale. When I was organizing her donation, I discovered a Winnie-the-Pooh costume from The Disney Store. It’s a 3-6 months, and I hope that saving it pays off. Am I crazy? I’ve already started collecting books and other baby things. I’m baby crazy!

It’s been really interesting to see Bryan’s reactions to all of my baby talk. He definitely wants children, but at first, he was always quiet when I brought up the subject. He said he was super scared, and who wouldn’t be? I am! But I’m more excited and ready! Now he seems pretty excited too! It’s nice to hear him talk openly about having kids. And even though I’m really, really ready, I want it to come in it’s own time. Right now I need to focusing on getting hitched. Then we can focus on the other stuff. And like I said, even after the wedding, it’s not a rush to get pregnant. I just hope it happens without a lot of thought on my behalf, and that it comes and the perfect time for us. 🙂

So, here’s the part where you all get to give me tons of advice…and hopefully, hand-me-downs when we do actually conceive. 😉

Valentine’s Day Pictures:

bryan

soy sauce

flowers

dessert

battleship

v n b

me and the flowers

Pictures from Our 2 Year Anniversary:

bad, just bad!

Recent Videos of the Cats:

Songs I’m Digging at the Moment:

Naturally – Selena Gomez

The Middle – Demi Lovato

Perfectly Paleo

February14

This name means nothing to you…now. But one day I hope this is a name that everyone in America has heard of and hopefully purchased, eaten, and loved. This is the name of mine and Bryan’s new business. I can’t believe it, but we are actually creating a business! I’m so excited. I haven’t felt this kind of excitement since I was a little kid. And I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Bryan this excited and full of passion. It’s amazing, and I love it!

By now I assume all my followers (all 3 of you) already know what Paleo is, but if you don’t then you need to Goggle it. Paleo has changed our lives. It has made me feel amazing, and I look better since we started eating this way. And while I love my meat, veggies, and fruits, I still find myself craving treats and sweets. I just can’t seem to help myself. And I know I’m not the only one. Lots of paleo eaters have stated this fact. Well, the whole time I kept thinking it would be so amazing if there was a company to made these treats, and I could eat them without worrying about all the stuff that might be hidden in there. There’s a lot of ingredients in stuff that I can’t pronounce which I usually just assume means that it isn’t good for me. I’m always on the lookout for new things we could eat. And this whole time, we could have been filling this niche.

The only reason we finally came to this point was Big Brothers Big Sisters annual Fundraiser – Bowl for Kids’ Sake. I just KNEW it would be a great idea if we sold Bryan’s perfected paleo macaroons. And I was right! We have sold almost $200 worth of macaroons in just a few weeks. And we’ve barely had to work to do so. People have just been begging for them. They are amazing.

We have so many ideas, recipes, etc. we can’t wait to get started on. We have our work cut out for us! But our friends have been so supportive that it just fuels us to keep going! Our friends have shared their interest, ideas, suggestions, marketing strategies, ideas, you name it! And we just wanted to let all of our friends know that we love it! We love hearing what you think; your ideas have been great. We definitely plan on using many of the ideas we’ve been given. We are new to owning a business, and we will accept help anyway we can get it.

The next step we’re working on is getting legal. We have got to create a LLC for ourselves and get registered with the state. We are also working on recipes ideas and perfections. We want to offer our clients variety, variety, variety and perfection. We also have a lot of ideas on how to get started and get our name out there. Please continue to support us as we continue to try to figure this whole thing out. If you’ve done anything like this before, please help! 🙂

Our website is: www.perfectlypaleo.com. If you go there you’ll only find a thrown up version of a site that’s more of a placeholder than anything else. We simply just wanted to get something up there. Bryan has been working on getting a great website up that will take care of all of needs as well as our clients. And when it’s finished, I know it’ll be amazing.

You can also become a fan of us on Facebook. You know how much I love my Facebook! 🙂

Planning A Wedding – Part 2

February10

When Bryan first proposed and we set the date, this wedding seemed like such a long time away. Now it’s less than 4 months till the wedding! I now get panicked, have little anxiety attacks, and even bad dreams about all the things that could go wrong with this wedding! It’s terrible, and I’ve cried more than once…more than twice. But June 5 will come, and it will be amazing no matter how much goes wrong because nothing can change the fact that I’m marrying my best friend. That’s all that matters, and that’s all I’m really focused on. The last time I posted about the wedding we had a lot done, but now we’ve gotten more accomplished though not nearly as far as I’d hoped we’d be. Still I’d like to update you on things we’ve done since my last post on the subject.

*We decided to hire the Cole Hose Bed & Breakfast (where we’ll be staying the night of the wedding and some our family will be staying while there for the wedding) to help us with some of the wedding. We’ve hired them for the food, chairs/tables, and a tent. We may find more uses for them in regards to decorations, but we’re still trying to hash out those details.

*We still haven’t started the invitations. Well, we did write up a storyboard of how we’d like the DVD invitations to play out. And we bought a Flip so we can record them ourselves. It’s not even funny how badly we need to get started on these things. There is a lot of editing that will need to be done. I’m just going to go ahead and say that we are unavailable for all social events from now till the wedding. There is too much to do!

*My wedding dress came in! It hung in the closet for awhile, but I took it to be altered about a week ago. Much to my surprise it fit perfectly! The only thing she had to alter was the length. She also added a bustle. I bought a bra from her also. It ended up costing almost as much as the dress…not cool! But I love this lady, and I have faith that the work she does will be amazing and worth every penny. I’m gonna be looking to selling this dress so hopefully I can recoup some of this money. I go back on March 6 to try it on again, and hopefully, I’ll be bringing it home complete and ready to wear!!

*I bought my maid of honor’s dress as well as the flower girl dress and delivered them to the respective people over Christmas. Both dresses were perfect and just like the pictures online! The girls loved them, and I can’t wait to see them wearing them on our wedding day. Bryan’s sister has ordered her dress too. So, all the girls now have their dresses. Whew.

*I have purchased all the ties/pocket squares that all the men will need in the wedding. We also have gotten the groomsmen’s Converse and Bryan’s specially ordered Converse. We created them through the site’s online creator. They are pretty bad-ass! I also have the bridesmaid’s gifts purchased and wrapped!

*The cake hasn’t changed. We talked to my cousin over Christmas, and we’ve decided to do a chocolate cake on the inside as well as the chocolate truffles on the outside. It’s not traditional, but I don’t care. I love some chocolate, and I hope you do too!

*We are still working on decorations. I think I know what I want, but I need to get started on the stuff since I’ll be purchasing the items and making them myself. They just aren’t things you can go buy already done in a store. It will require more time than perhaps I really have, but oh well. I think that the decorations will make the wedding!

*We’ve been adding stuff to our registry all along, and it’ll be ready to be made public when we send out the invitations!!

*I have all the stuff I need to make the flower girl basket and the basket to place the fan programs in. I just have to find the time to sit down and make the darn things!

*We bought the ring bearer’s pillow over Christmas, and left it at my Grandmother’s house so there’s no chance of us leaving at here in Cedar Park. 🙂

*While there for Christmas, we got our blood work done (neither of us have syphilis and so we can be married in the state of Mississippi) and filed and payed for our marriage license. It’ll be ready to pick up when we get there before the wedding!

*We also spoke to my old preacher and secured him as our officiator for the wedding. I’m happy that he agreed to marry us.

*We priced out flowers from a couple of local florists, and while it’ll be expensive, I think the flowers will look awesome for the wedding.

*I made an appointment with a girl in Philadelphia to get my hair and makeup done on the day of the wedding.

*We only need to put a couple of finishing touches on the wedding programs, and then we can send them off for printing. When they come back I’ll still need to assemble them as fans and add decorations.

*The apartment we had on reserve is still on hold, but we need to pay our deposit this week to secure it for good. Hopefully, Bryan will be able to check the place out when he goes to NYC later this month for business.

*We talked to the CrossFit that is like a mile away from the apartment we’ll be subletting, and they said we could come and train there! I’m super excited about this. We’ll have to pay, but at least we won’t sit around getting flabby for a whole month!

*We have arranged for someone we know to come and house/cat sit for us the entire time we’re gone. This is such a HUGE relief off of me. This is the only way I could leave our little family for that long. I know that they and the house will get the attention they need.

*We picked out the tuxes for the usher, ring bearer, and my dad while we were in Philadelphia.

*For Christmas, Bryan bought me the lights that I wanted to have for the ceremony. He bought every strand that Target had! Hopefully, they’ll be perfect once we get them hung up at the ceremony site.

*We’ve got a location, date, and time for our Austin reception. We just need to find a caterer.

*I’ve got some things but still need more to complete the gifts for the ring bearer and flower girl.

*We’ve looked at wedding bands galore, and I think we’re close to making a decision. We’re going to try some on this weekend hopefully.

*Bryan purchased his suit, but we still need to have it altered.

I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but I just can’t thing of anything else at the moment. This has not been an easy or fun process, and there is still so, so much left to do before June 5 arrives. I’m just ready for the whole thing to be over with! This is the most expensive event! And I know ours is low compared to most people. I don’t know people do it. I’m freaking out about how much there is to do and how much every little thing costs!! It’s crazy, and I’m going crazy!

I Only Want To Imagine

February10

I only want to imagine what my mother is going through because I really hope I never have to understand or live it first hand.

Death. It was a heavy topic over the Christmas break in Mississippi. First, I saw my stepmother for the first time since she was diagnosed with cancer. I’m happy to report that she is reacting to the chemo greatly. The cancer in her liver is no longer detectable and the cancer in her lungs has shrunk greatly. We hope that means that she is on her way to full recovery, but the journey isn’t over for her or my family. We can’t breathe easily until she is in remission. Please, continue to keep her and my family in your prayers. I definitely do not want my father to go through what my mother is currently going through.

Shortly before the holidays, my mother’s boyfriend of 10+ years was killed in a car accident. He was hit by another car at an intersection…a 4-way stop I think. He was in the fault, and he payed dearly. He didn’t die immediately. He had severe damage everywhere, but it was the head damage that kept him from recovering. The impact was so hard that it caused all 4 lobes of his brain to separate. He never woke up after the accident, and they finally pulled the plug about a week before we were to go to Mississippi. I hate that I missed the funeral especially being there for my mother, but I couldn’t take 2 weeks off from work.

My mother and Marty  (her boyfriend) had 2 children together, Presley who is 8 and Carson who is 5. They were dysfunctional by any one’s standards, but they somehow always managed to make it work. You don’t see 10 years without some type of attraction. Though I did like Marty and was deeply saddened to hear he’d been injured, I was mostly sad for my mother and my siblings. I just can’t even come close to imaging what they have gone through. I cried the day my grandmother told me about how they told the children that their father had passed away. Carson is really to young to understand the finality of it all, but someday he’ll understand and have many questions. I just hope he’ll retain some memories of Marty because that boy sure did love his Daddy. Presley is old enough to understand. I’m impressed with how she handled it. She’s extremely bright. She was curious to know if they would be getting a new daddy. It’s a cute question on some levels and just deeply saddening on many more. They’ll both have it tough growing up, but I know they’ll both do just fine.

My mother is doing very well. She has a lot to do, and it’s keeping her busy. Marty has cared for her since they met. She hasn’t worked in years, but she’ll have to now. Even with his insurance money, she will need to provide for these children. They hoping to move from the small town where they lived and Marty was from to somewhere right outside of Jackson, MS and closer to the rest of my family. She’s got lots of support which she’ll need, however, I still feel guilty for being here when I feel like I should be there helping out. Alas, I can’t. I have to have faith in the rest of my family to make sure she has all the support and help that she needs and do my best to help here from here. I’m hoping that maybe this summer her and the kids can come visit us here.

I can’t imagine losing the one you love. I wouldn’t know where to start without Bryan. He’s my everything! And yesterday was our 2 year anniversary. I can’t believe it’s been 2 years! What an amazing 2 years it has been. And we’re are less than 4 months away from saying “I do!” Wow! It’s coming fast.

I do promise to try to do better about writing in this blog. I love blogging, but it seems that with wedding on the brain 24/7 and work, CrossFit, and TKD there isn’t much time for other things. There are other exciting things on the horizon for us, but more on that later. There’s no way I can catch you up to everything that has happened since I last blogged, but I can highlight the good stuff.

The last blog was somewhere toward the beginning of our Holly Jolly Challenge at CrossFit. We didn’t win. 🙁 But we did come in 2nd place! And I’m so proud of my team. Everyone worked so hard for the entire month. It took a lot out of me so I know it wasn’t easy on them either. My favorite part about this challenge was getting to know Paula and Jody. These gals are awesome! And now I feel like I have even more friends at CrossFit. It was great to get to know them past just seeing them in class.

A very important note before we get to pictures/videos. Bryan and I are hosting a garage sale to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters here in Austin. We need your help! We need stuff, volunteers, and tables. Bring your unwanted stuff to our house and let us sale it for you. Anything not sold will be donated to Goodwill. Also, come by and buy some stuff. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure! We could also use some tables as well as some good hands to help us unpack and sell all of this said stuff. If you are interested any of these points please contact me or Bryan. The garage sale will be held this Saturday at 8 AM – 1 PM at our CrossFit gym on Lakeline. If you’d like a FREE and awesome workout come at 9:30 for open gym. I really hope to see you there!

We are also selling Paleo macaroons – 6 for $5! You don’t want to miss out on these awesome and healthy treats! It’s for a great cause. This money will help make matches happen. They can’t do it without help from everyday people just like you. Please, help make a difference in the life of a child, a difference that will last a lifetime.

Recent Pictures:

Ft. Hood memorial WOD pictures – thanks to everyone who donated

The WOD Quad

New Year’s Day CrossFit picture

OC

cats in the bed

Recent Videos:

Gobble, Gobble – Days 5, 6, and 7

November28

I finally broke my streak of posting everyday. C’mon – who’s really surprised? Well, I do have quite a valid excuse. I caught some sort of stomach virus on Wednesday. It hit me about 10 AM while I was trying to finish my last day of work for the week. I have to admit that this was by far the most horrible day of work since I started this new job. It’s not easy to take care of 9 one-year-olds when you feel like you need to vomit! I made it till 4 PM before I tossed my cookies (so to speak – you know you don’t get cookies on this diet 😉 ). Anyway, the day/night continued just as roughly. What a poorly timed (are they ever greatly timed?) virus! There was no one to relieve me at work. It was the day before Thanksgiving and the Turkey Trot that I for some insane reason decided to sign up for. I tried my hardest to feel better in order to go run this with my Holly Jolly Challenge team, but alas, my body was still completely wiped out! Oh well, at least the money went to a good cause. Bryan went on with out me and made a HUGE accomplishment for himself by running the entire 5 miles with no stops! I’m super proud of him! That is so amazing to me!

The rest of Thanksgiving went better, but it still had rocky moments. I was trying to decide what I could eat and what was simply too heavy. I only just got my stomach to feeling much better tonight with dinner. Thank goodness! We had dinner with Bryan’s grandparents and their neighbors. It was really nice. It was nice to have a place to belong to on a holiday. Since I can’t be with my family, I’m really happy to have Bryan’s to rely on for moments like these. Dinner was great even though I didn’t eat all that much. We made a few dishes and brought over. I’m going to try to make this the last cheat until the challenge is over because that is a real challenge for me. I’ve never gone more than 2 weeks without cheating. This might be hard or it might be all too easy – too early to tell.

Today I started out going to CrossFit for a free class. It was a team workout, and it was extremely hard because I didn’t have all of my strength back yet. We still managed to finish and with good time however. The workout was

  • 400 m run
  • 225 pull-ups
  • 400 m run
  • 225 thrusters (I did 45 lbs.)
  • 400 m run

I found the pull-ups to be harder than normal for the reasons stated above. I did really good on the thrusters, however, which means it’s definitely time for me to up my weight. I think I was doing really good form, and they just didn’t seem all that difficult. Will be nice to rack some weight for this exercise finally! There were a few rules for this like you couldn’t start until all team members returned from the run. Only one team member could do the 225’s at a time. And the worst one was there was a 10 burpee penalty if you dropped the bar at all until all thrusters were finished. One team member dropped the bar so we all had to do 10. After today, I’m kind of dreading open gym tomorrow.

Here are my 3 journal entry sheets for today and the 2 days prior. There isn’t much on them, but eating should return to normal starting tomorrow. I hope everyone had a GREAT Thanksgiving! I am most thankful for Bryan (of course!) as well as my family, CrossFit, and my health. I am very thankful for my job and my friends. Life is great!

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Day 4 – Push Press Vs. Jerk

November24

Day 4. I didn’t go to CrossFit today for class, but I did go for a skills session that I had scheduled with Dave on Saturday. I wanted to focus on weight techniques especially one for getting the weight over my head. We decided on a clean and jerk. Good thing because I have always had problems with these. My techniques was definitely lacking. Dave started me with a medicine ball showing me first the clean part. Once I had that down we moved on to a pvc pipe and worked on both the clean and jerk. Finally after many many tries on both parts and then the whole I was allowed to move on to a 35 lbs bar and then on to a 45 lbs bar. After a while it clicked! There is a huge difference between jerking the bar and push pressing it! I am sooo thankful that I finally saw the difference. Getting large weights above your head really has everything to do with technique. I learned several other things too that will help the whole clean and jerk much better in the future. Bring back “Grace“! Girl, I will own you next time…um, maybe. 🙂

Here is my journal entry for day 4 of the Holly Jolly Challenge. Eating paleo comes so easy to me now, but as I’m sure you can see, I need to work on making my meals more rounded…more zoned. And if you haven’t noticed, let me bring your attention to the quality of food that we eat – as much organic, free-range, cage-free, grass-fed, no hormones, etc. It’s expensive, but it is worth every penny. Why? Watch it. It will CHANGE the way you see the food industry, and hopefully the way you eat. We’re more paleo now than before because like the cavemen, we won’t be eating any grain fed fish, cows, or pork. Gross!

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