A New Tradition

I have decided that since the new commercial holiday tradition seems to be advertising and selling Christmas effective November 1, I will take advantage of this fact and start some interesting conversations. In my search for holiday gifts -- yes, I am nearly done with my holiday shopping -- I stumbled upon a great set of holiday icebreakers cards. Interesting stuff. You will all now be my guinea pigs :-)

Icebreaker for the day: If you could give any gift to one person, what would it be and who would you give it to?

That is a tough one - I am waffling between giving my friend Teri the gift of a stress and anxiety-free weekend full of SLEEP, giving my Dad a year of rent for his home and office, or, giving Ken a set of season tickets to the Oakland A's with hotel and travel accommodations for every game. ( I thought about tickets to the Bills, but realized that means lots of snow -- he hates snow)

PS: Just in case you forgot we still have our joint blog where we talk about the ups and downs of married life and how we are growing as a family -- together.

Totally Stolen Idea

OK, so this is my life update for the week of October 22, 2007: (Thanks Marten and Ken)

• Celebrated one year anniversary with my specialist guy EVER! Not sure how it happened, but I am way lucky -- and honestly, so is he (no ego!). I am totally excited to see where this little adventurous journey will take us next.
• Got the most beautiful flowers delivered on anniversary-- all the flowers from my wedding bouquet in a beautiful vase. -- I know, sick, huh? He rocks! (oh! And a pink mother of pearl faced Tag. watch surrounded by diamonds [pictures coming soon])
• Also got a wicked cool periwinkle iPod Shuffle. I have been wanting one for my walks, bike rides and gym excursions. (this leads to the next highlight)
• Gym is paying off -- 36 pounds gone, and counting. I LOVE MY TRAINER!
• Finally got a bunch of thank you notes out. I know they are way late, but better late than never, right? More notes to write and more to mail.
• Met with folks to do some party planning. Candlelighters of Southern Nevada is a great organization that works with children with cancer and their families. They asked if I would volunteer my services to help coordinate their big Christmas/Holiday party. Since I have not planned a party in over a year (see first bullet point) I jumped at the chance to make some little ones smile.
• Finally uploaded a ton of music onto my iTunes. I think if anyone saw my play list they would think I had personality disorders (yes, plural). Tonight, I was listening to the tunes while cooking a yummy dinner of sloppy joes and sweet potato fries, and song one was the Barenaked Ladies live from a concert I went to, followed up by a song from my workout cd called Come Baby Come... Now the funny thing was that the BNL song included some conversation at the end that introduced their next song; " That was from our last album, but this is from our current release..." "Come Babe Come Baby, Baby come come... " TOO FUNNY!
• Celebrated all sorts of birthdays and milestones with Teri last week, but it feels like it should be included in this week's update for some reason. Cannot believe Jacob is 1, and even more, cannot believe Josh is 18. How did Teri get old enough to have an 18 yr old?!?! (Ha Ha)

OK, off to a bike ride with my honey and then settling in for a fudge bar and Private Practice!

Wheeeeeeeeeeee

We took the bikes out for their inaugural ride yesterday. Wow! I was so excited. The excitement quickly diminished, though, as I found out just how out of shape I am. Ugh!

I think it might be a while, a short while, before I am heading out on that one mile ride to Teri's or the in-laws'. We went around the corner to our friends' house in our own community, and I was red-faced and gasping for air. Now that may have had something to do with the fact that my bike settings were all set for higher tension, and my seat was too low causing my knees to nearly hit me in the chin with each rotation, but it was tougher than I anticipated.

On our way home, though, I got the gears changed up and adjusted the seat. MUCH better. I may not be as giddy as I was, but I am determined and excited still about getting to go for rides with my honey.

The weather out here has been amazing, so I can only imagine how great it will be as it continues and my endurance builds. I foresee some great rides in our future.