Monthly Archives: July 2013

Pros and Cons

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Pro: I went downtown on Monday to try a class at Heavens Elevated Fitness. The class was called Cardio Extreme and it was true to its word. The entire hour was jumping and jacking and high-kneeing and everything imaginable to get my heart rate up. A lot of it was somewhat choreographed- and me being the most uncoordinated person ever- I ended up improvising with a ton of jumping and clapping until I fell back into the rhythm. PS: The facilities are REALLY nice.

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Con: I can’t stop eating carbs this week. I guess my body needs it, but jeeze that cheese pull apart bread from Cobs Bread has been screaming at me from the kitchen to just eat.it.all.

Pro: I just changed my email address to my married name. And went to the US Consulate office yesterday morning to have my name changed on my Passport and Social Security card. Let me just say that that office was the first place I’ve felt special since moving here. They gave me preference in every line and rather than waiting for an hour PER change (1 for passport and 1 for ss card) I was in and out in 20 minutes. To be honest, I think I was the only American in there and everyone else was just applying for visas to travel to the States. America for the win! (Well, at least for yesterday!)

Con: I got turned down from another job. People keep telling me to keep my head up and that there’s something out there for me. Which I believe…..but after being unemployed for 531 days. (that’s right, I’m keeping track) it’s hard to keep EVERY negative thought out of my mind. Is there some sort of vendetta against me? There aren’t any typos on ANY of my resumes and I have so much education and experience and enthusiasm to offer at any position. Yet still….nothing. I just don’t understand. To further..it really just makes me feel that life is on hold. I know, I planned a wedding and life is all happy happy in the partner department, but I still feel that even BOTH of us are just waiting to progress in our lives together..with the first step being me getting a job. Comprende? If I don’t get a job, we don’t travel. If I don’t get a job, we don’t have kids. If I don’t get a job, we’ll never get our dream home. If I don’t get a job, I will forever have puppy syndrome when Tyler comes home and the man NEEDS. HIS. SPACE. I get it. OHHHHHHHHH And if I don’t get a job, I don’t have the opportunity to meet people. 

Which brings me to my next point (Consider this a Con, extended): You know when people ask you how you are and you always respond “good?” Well, that’s the same thing when people ask me how I like Calgary. I tell them I love it (Don’t get me wrong, there are good points like ummm my husband and my dogs and the beautiful scenery) but I don’t really. At least, not yet. I am still working on making friends– I just really miss my gym friends, my home friends, and the ability for last-minute meet-ups. I just can’t quite get the hang of how people socialize here- and I don’t want to entirely submit to it!  And the fact that NO ONE wants to hire me. WTF is that? Or that just because I am the minority here and spell things differently and still have trouble counting out toonies and loonies (I MISS THE DOLLAR BILL, Y’ALL) and am just not CANADIAN doesn’t mean I have to be so isolated. 

[Please don’t leave negative comments here, I got some last week that really prompted this con]

Pro: I’m done with that rant. I’m not writing it to make you all feel bad for me, it just feels better to write and publish than to keep bottled inside. So if you hated the post, forget about it, because the next one will probably be funny. I guarantee that as soon as I press Publish I will feel better and immediately regret writing the whole thing. But it is what it is. 

Con: If you make apple chips, you will EAT THEM ALL. They are so good. So technically, this is a pro?

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Pro: I bought my first pair of Lululemon SHORTS yesterday- courtesy of a gift card from my MIL. Still not sure how I feel about them, so I’m going to keep the tags on and wear them around the house (aka: run up and down the halls and do jump squats) to see if they’ll fit the bill. 

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(Source)

Give me a pro and a con from you!

Things of Late

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Ahh, I wish I could have this past weekend back and relive it over and over. It was great weather, good company, and yummy food!

Thursday evening, I had plans to meet up with my friend Mackenzie at Color Me Mine. I thought it would be a great activity- and finally one that didn’t involve beer with the two of us. But, as soon as we got there, we noticed that the prices were sky-high! We hightailed it out of there and where do you guess we ended up……………a bar.

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I was kind of bummed that we didn’t end up with any pottery- since I was really hoping on painting a pretty sweet cake stand. Ah well.

Friday I took the puppies to the park for a good chunk of the afternoon. They got lots of play time in with other pups and Layla got in a few swims.

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We had hot dogs for dinner. And beer. Delicious grapefruit beer. It tastes best with a shot of vodka in it. Don’t question the madness- just try it!

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And the puppies helped man the BBQ with Tyler.

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Saturday, we went to Canmore to visit our favorite brew pub and to walk around for a few hours. It’s always such a delicious experience when we go to Grizzly Paw!

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Tyler ordered the deep fried pickles and fish and chips and I got the veggie panini.

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To top off a wonderful afternoon, we had ribs for dinner! They are seriously so good that I almost eat myself into a coma every time Tyler makes them. So worth it though.

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We also started watching Weeds. Yup, I’m addicted to that show. I am seriously loving Netflix with all this binge watching I can do. 

Sunday we met up with our friends Crystie and Greg at the Sun and Salsa Festival. Tyler and I went last year and it was so damn HOT. This year was a lot better temperature wise, but it was still crowded as hell. Yuck.

We stopped at one of the restaurants within Kensington (Pulcinella) for pizza and it was so good I seriously could have eaten two. 

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Lots of stuff was on the agenda today, but I want to get in a couple episodes of Weeds before bed tonight. Catch ya later!

What’s your favorite new-to-you show?

Thursday Things

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-I have been enrolled in this round of Best Body Bootcamp, but I haven’t been as gung-ho on the workouts. I look at them to gain inspiration an maybe refresh my memory on some moves I may have forgotten, but I just haven’t felt I’ve been getting the results I want from them. So, to change it up, I have been referring to one of my favorite books, The Women’s Health Big Book of Exercises. I think it’s doing the trick, because my bod has been SORE for the past week. SORE JEN= HAPPY JEN.

Favorite moves as of late:

Single Leg Glute Bridge on Foam Roller

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(Source)

Single Arm Cable Row and Rotation

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Reverse Lunge with Overhead Press on Gliding Disc (<—-click link to see video demo and written description)

-I took the pups to the park the other day and there was a sign about moose sightings.

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I have been here 17 months now and have YET to see a moose.

-Speaking of 17 months, it has also been that long since anyone has come to visit me. I’m not overseas people, get your lazy butts on a plane and come visit. Free ride from the airport and free place to stay. C’mon.

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(Source)

-I had an interview yesterday! Keeping my fingers crossed. Sported the scarf my bestie Katie gave me during my wedding morning shower/mani/pedi party.

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-Anyone watch The Amazing Race? Well, the premiere of Amazing Race Canada aired here this week and yep, it’s only in Canada. The whole race. Lame. But since I have nothing better to do, I’ll be watching.

-My photographer only sent a couple of photos to me last night, and most of them were detail shots, but this one made me laugh out loud. Combine lots of prosecco with a corset and you’ve got yourself a couple of laughs.

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(photo courtesy of Sarah Smith Photography)

-I have been on a huge fruit binge lately. This morning, I made this:

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Yep, delicious.

What’s your favorite way to eat fruit? 

Current favorite exercise move?

An Anywhere Workout

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Another week. Blah

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Obviously not much has gone on since I last posted. Especially now that we are back in Calgary and I am back to my boring old routine of sleep-clean-workout.

I figured I’d share with you one of the workouts I did while I was in NY. This was the only one I could really remember off the top of my head, as most of them were hodge podge workouts with what equipment I had available and how much time I had.

Luckily for me, my parents have a treadmill in the basement and 5-8-10 lb sets of weights so I am able to do a lot with those while also incorporating some body weight stuff, TRX, Gliding Discs, etc.

So I did this workout last friday (7/5) right before I had to get ready for our rehearsal dinner. Everyone (‘everyone’ being Tyler, my mom and dad, and my godparents) was sitting in the kitchen enjoying some early afternoon cocktails while I snuck in about a 20 minute workout. The first part of the workout was the following:

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Note: The ATW weighted lunges require holding a dumbbell and mimicking this order: front lunge right, side lunge right, reverse lunge right, reverse lunge left, side lunge left, front lunge left. Get it?

Note #2: The standing crunches do not require weights, but you can hold one for an extra challenge, which I did. Standing up, hold a dumbbell in your right hand with you arm fulling extended overhead and palm facing forward. Drop the elbow at the same time as you draw your right knee up in attempt to touch knee to elbow. Get it?

I did this 3x through then got on the treadmill for 10 min of 60:60 HIIT (sprint 60 seconds, jog 60 seconds).

I was pretty dang sweaty, but needed it to get myself prepped for the evening ahead!

Tidbits from the last week or so

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Let me start off by saying Hi. It’s been a while, I know. We were in NY from July 3-10, had a TERRIBLE overnight layover in Chicago, and have been dealing with a medical problem with Layla ever since we got home. So, not too much time or desire for me to really sit at the computer and blog away.

Second, this isn’t a wedding post. There will be one, but I really want to wait for the sneak peek shots from our photographer. And I obviously have no photos since I was mostly in other people’s photos and I don’t wait to steal theirs! So, if you’re DYING to see pics, you can check out Athena’s post on my wedding. Until then, sit tight.

Some thoughts over the past week or so:

-I am really good at falling asleep on planes. Tyler, not so much. Therefore, I bought him a beer in Chicago while we waited for our second flight.

-I FOUND MY FAVORITE BEER EVER at one of the local beverage stores in my parent’s hometown.

Image-I FINALLY bought new sneaks. I hadn’t bought a pair since Feb 2012 and desperately wanted/needed a new pair by Oct/Nov last year, but couldn’t fathom paying these stupid Canadian prices. On the 4th, Tyler and I drove down to Albany and indulged in quite a few purchases with American price tags. Aka: my haven.

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-Speaking of sneaks, I managed to get in some good *SWEATY* workouts while we were in NY. I packed my TRX in my suitcase and was able to incorporate that in 2 of my home workouts, did another countdown workout (on the back 3-season room where the AC was off but I was at least in the shade pre-wedding and didn’t have to worry about getting tan lines) and a SWEET circuit workout at the hotel gym on the morning of the wedding (I got up at 6:30am to get a much wanted workout before it all started!).

-And now speaking of workouts, there were obviously a couple of days I didn’t workout while we were there, but I didn’t entirely mind. Because, umm duhhhhhh, it was my wedding week! I indulged in what I wanted (see: Sutton’s Apple Dumplings, Frozen Dreams soft serve, BEER..) And guess what? some of this was BEFORE I put that dress on. The very dress that I had my final fitting in January for. And I FIT IN IT. Hallelujah.  I don’t weigh myself anymore, but I left NY feeling no different about my body than I did before we went. WHICH IS PRETTY DANG AWESOME. 

-We went to Crandall Park in Glens Falls to listen to the Orchestra and watch fireworks. And drink beer.

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This was one of the days I managed to get in a workout and got done just before we left for the park. Hence no makeup/looking somewhat human.

-Our rehearsal dinner was YUMMMMMMMMY and well worth the pretty penny it cost. (More on that in a different post, I’m just trying to post tidbits here today!)

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(Thanks for the photos, Kysh!)

 

-My hotel suite for Fri/Sat night was TWO FLOORS. And pretty awesome. Minus the spotty wi-fi that I so desperately wanted so that I could use my phone!

-The girls surprised me with a sweet morning oh breakfast/manis/pedis. And mimosas. Lots of mimosas. I’m pretty sure my bridesmaid, Katie was the life of that morning. She had us in stitches the whole time. Oh, and they all got me gifts….totally didn’t see that nice little surprise coming! Thanks girls! (And mom, and Ingrid and Aunt Marion!!)

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-I’m 100% certain my photographer caught some images of me naked while my Mom and Matron of Honor were trying to get that dress up my body. I think those are going to be the funniest photos and I really want to blow one up and put in my office. For no other purpose than for shock and awe to future houseguests.

-I ate approximately 2 bites of my meal that night because I was busy talking to EVERYONE, busy DRINKING, busy DANCING, and busy DOING PUSHUPS.

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-We played a LOT of Dominos post-wedding weekend. Mainly because it was the easiest thing to entertain ourselves while drinking at home.

-In addition to the above point, my dad yanked their ENTIRE cable package for the house, so we had no option of watching TV other than local cable channels. Which consisted of horse races, a continuously running commercial for a local jewelry store, and a never-ending CSI:Miami marathon.

-Layovers due to United Airlines SUCKING at O’Hare will result in an overnight stay at Super 8 (which wasn’t even complimentary), waiting for a shuttle to said motel, having the shuttle put a PILOT in the trunk so he wouldn’t have to wait for the next shuttle, and having to order pizza at 1am since we had not eaten in over 14 hours. Oh, and wearing the same clothes for over 24 hours sans toothbrush or deodorant. Needless to say, Tyler and I had an unspoken agreement not to makeout that next day.

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-Of course the rescheduled flight the next day would consist of a women hacking a lung the entire flight, and the rest of the occupants being TEN YEAR OLDS. And the most hyper one sat behind me. His judo chops and kicks are NOT comparable to massage chairs.

-I’m pretty sure if you’re a cab driver, you should have remote knowledge of the area where you drive. The guy we got stuck with once we landed in Calgary took us for a bit of a ride. The end.

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-I am REALLY sad that week is over. It was WAY too much fun and 10000000000 times better than I thought it would be while I was planning it.

-Fake eyelashes are THE SHIT.

-Tyler was destined to be a part of the family as far as my mom is concerned. They share a love for margaritas. Especially the ones I make.

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K, that’s it for now. If I don’t hear from my photographer soon, I’ll be posting her e-mail/phone # for all you guys to contact her on my behalf. That should definitely do the trick.