Crappy Crossfitter?

I've been doing Crossfit for about two weeks now. I must say that it's a love/hate relationship. I hate the workout while I'm doing it, but I love how I feel afterwards. I really think that I'm already getting stronger, at least in my upper body and I'm no longer as sore as I was after the first workout.

That being said I kind of had a bad moment yesterday after our workout. Our workout of the day was Nancy and for those who don't know it involves 5 rounds of running 400 meters followed by 15 overhead squats. I'm not a runner anyway and I'm especially not a runner after I've been doing overhead squats. The first couple of laps I was slower, but fine. The last three laps I had to walk about 30 feet and then continued running. My time wasn't horrible and I wasn't the last one to finish the workout, but afterwards the guy who is leading these classes pulled me aside to tell me he thought I wasn't pushing myself hard enough. I'll admit, I probably could have ran a little more on the workout yesterday, but that's the only workout we've done that I felt like I didn't do as much as I could have.

Afterwards I felt kind of bad about it. I didn't know whether I should feel good that he thought I wasn't living up to my potential and talked to me because of that or if I should feel bad because he thinks I'm just a craptasic Crossfitter. No one else got the motivational speech that I did, which made me feel even worse. Anyone else experienced this in Crossfit?

Question of the Day

A slightly unusual Question of the Day, but one that was inspired by a recent debate on a forum I'm part of.

Do you find it disrespectful if an adult couple married or not, is intimate while staying over at a family members' home?  For example, you and your signifcant other go to your parents' home for Christmas. Are you intimate? Or do you think that's disrespecting your family?

Just for the record I mean you're being discreet, no yelling/headboard hitting the walls.

I'm curious to hear your answers.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In

I haven't participated in awhile, so I thought I would this week. Join in over at Wife of a Sailor!

1.Are you a different person than you were five years ago?
I'm not hugely different. I've grown-up a lot (or at least I like to think I have). Five years ago I was fresh out of college and thought the next few years would be a big adventure, with me working at some National Park in another state and living the single life. I was right about the next few years being an adventure, but that's about it.


2.If you could go on Amazing Race, who would you take with you as your partner and why?
Hmm...not Sean because he doesn't even like the show, so I can't see him even wanting to be on it. Probably my friend Brittni. She's very outgoing and I think she'd be great on a lot of the different tasks. Plus she's very city-savvy, so that's a plus.

3.Does Facebook or Twitter actually bring more stress or good in to your life?
I rarely use Twitter, so that's never a problem for me. Sometimes Facebook just feels like a big drama fest, but normally I just put those people on ignore.

4.June is National Soul Food Month- what’s your soul food?
My mom's potato casserole. It's seriously one of my very favorite foods. Going hand-in-hand with that would be my Grandma's homemade mashed potatoes. They taste like heaven!

5.If you could live in any other era than the current, which one would it be & why?
The 1970's. Because I love the music and I think it would have been AWESOME to go see all those artists at their peak at concerts.

Crossfit: Day One

I've been curious about Crossfit ever since I met my friend Sara several years ago.  She used to blog about it regularly and although I wanted to give it a try, I never got the chance to work out with her.

Then we moved to Italy and there was no Crossfit class here. So, I just put it on the backburner and watched as several of my other military wife friends around the world got into Crossfit. Finally last year on our Vicenza gym website an airman posted that he was coming to Vicenza and was Crossfit certified, did we have any classes.

Lo and behold the airman is here and is now doing a two month beginner Crossfit class three times a week.  I immediately said I was interested and yesterday was our first class.

I must admit I was nervous going into it. I know what Crossfit workouts are like and I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to make it through one.  Well, the workout was intense, but I made it through it. Even though I alternated feeling like I wanted to drop to the ground with exhaustion and wanting to yak.

Our workout was:

400 meter run
21-15-9 (in other words 3 rounds) of squats, push-ups and dead-lifts
Finish it off with another 400 meter run

I'll admit that I had to walk part of the last 400 run. I was EXHAUSTED. But I finished, even though my total time wasn't that great, but it was my first time so I'm just wanting it to improve.

I was really pleased with how encouraging everyone was, it made things that much easier and I really liked knowing that my form was right when I did deadlifts (I can attribute that to Sara). I was a little surprised by some of the girls there though, one admitted that she'd never lifted weights. I was shocked honestly, I can't imagine NOT lifting weights, but to each their own.

I'm super sore today even though I've tried to stay active and even took a long walk and did stretches. Tomorrow is my next class so I'm hoping I'm not too sore.

My Birthday Wish List

I hope to do some trip reports of my recent travels soon, but in the meantime I have a few other posts planned.

My birthday is coming up in about a month and I've been contemplating what I want to put on my wish list. So far, I've come up with a few items.

First up? I'm a huge fan of The Sound of Music and used to watch the VHS version all the time as a kid. However, I need my own copy now and the 45th Anniversary set came out a couple of years ago. I think it's high time I added it to my collection.

I'm always looking to add items for my future photography business. This is one of the next lenses that I'm considering to add to my collection. Perfect for portraits!

In the same spirit of helping out my photography business, I'm really considering Adobe Lightroom 3. I already have Adobe Photoshop Elements, but I feel like Lightroom would be a valuable resource for me and I've heard the noise reduction is well worth the price.

I think I'd also be open to a new purse from Niccoli or even a small weekend trip, say to Croatia or the Dolomites.

Checking-In and Catching Up

So much has been going on these past few weeks that I don't even know where to start!

First of all I'd like to say a big thank you to all my guest bloggers. I really appreciate each and every one of you taking the time to fill-in for me while I was gone on vacation.

Now on to what's being going on. Most of you will remember that I went to Germany with Sean for his doctor's appointment last month. He was told that he did have the option of back surgery, but it came with a big list of if's and warnings about what could go wrong.  Right now it seems like he's thinking about getting the surgery done, however the doctor he saw last time is new and wants more tests done on Sean's back, specifically his nerves, so Sean is heading to Germany yet again next week to start that.

My family came in a couple of weeks ago and we were pretty much non-stop sight-seeing once they got here. We did Tuscany (Montalcino, Pisa and Montepulciano) Austria/Germany (Salzburg, Reutte, Dachau and the King Ludwig Castles) and London for four days. They left on Monday and needless to say, I was pretty sad. It seemed so empty without them here.

We had a bit of an incident the day we came back from Austria. Sean called when I was almost home and told me he'd been rear-ended on his way home from work.  Luckily both he and the lady who ran into him were ok. His car needs a new bumper, but her car was totalled. Thankfully his car is still driveable, we're just waiting on the insurance claim to go through.

Sean had his wisdom teeth removed yesterday, so I've been playing nurse for him the last couple of days. He's determined to go back to work this week, but we'll see if that happens or not.

Last, but not least, I'm working on a new fitness plan for myself. I've really been slacking off the past few months and I can tell when I put on my clothes. I start Crossfit class next week and I'm also throwing in some early morning runs, spin class and a yoga class once a week. I'm determined to look more toned and be stronger by the end of the summer.

I hope to get back to my regular blogging and commenting more on all of your blogs!

Guest Post: Soul Mates

First of all, I want to thank Melissa for allowing me the chance to guest blog for her. She is a great blogger, and it is truly an honor that I get to be one of her “guesties.” I haven’t done this too many times, so I appreciate her confidence in me. Thanks, Melissa!

Well, as a first time guest blogger, I had to rack my brain for what to write about. Back in May of 2010, I said “I do” to the wonderful “J” of the J loves K of my blog! We decided to take a delayed honeymoon somewhere warm when winter came in order to escape the winter blues. We just got back, and yes, it was amazing! But, it got me thinking of how crazy it was that Joel and I actually met.
I never believed in soul mates growing up. That was just in the movies and things like that don’t really happen in real life. But, meeting Joel made me change my view on that. I know, it does sound cheesy, but stay with me here.

I am a Midwesterner from Indiana whose entire life consisted of staying in the Midwest. Big family vacations included Nashville, Cincinnati, Louisville, and the fancy city of Chicago! No one in my family ever left the state for good. My mother fully intended that I will always live within a 10 minute drive from her, as our house growing up was only two blocks down from her mother’s house. That is just how her side of the family was. But, I had different plans. When I was 20 and still in college, I got a rare opportunity to move and live abroad. So, with two suitcases and my dog in hand, we flew (by ourselves) all the way to Germany. I have been here for six years now and I love it!

Joel, who is four years older than me, grew up in Oregon. His dad was retired Air Force, and after he graduated for college, decided during his job hunt that he would follow in those some footsteps and commissioned the same year that I moved to Germany. In the amount of time I have been here, he has been stationed all over, from Japan to Turkey. In 2009, he received orders for Spangdahlem Air Base, about an hour from me, and a place I have only been to a handful of times. At the last minute, his orders switched him to Ramstein, the base next door to where I work.

It just so happened that when he moved to Germany in June 2009, we had a mutual friend. The very first week he was here, she invited him to a movie night that I was putting together. I happened to be on a kind of date that night. But, he was very nice and a friend of a friend, so he tagged along. While it took me a little while to notice him in “that way,” Joel tells me that that night, he just knew that he had to get to know me more. There was something about me that spoke to him, and he wiggled his way in my circle of friends. After a little while of flirting, he finally admitted his crush and I knew, then, that I was crushing back pretty hard, too. The first date was it for us. I knew I wanted to get to know him more, and he said that he fell in love with me that night. (Of course he didn’t tell me that night. Then this story may not have happened!)

Of course, our circumstances make it totally possible that we never should have met and our paths never should have crossed. But they did. And we fell in love hard and fast. When people say someone completes them, I get that with Joel. He really does. And so is the story of how this Hoosier met her Beaver. Thanks for letting me share.